The UCLA football team has had issues with their coaching staff the last few seasons, but with Chip Kelly, the team has a staff of highly experienced individuals which should bring a lot of success to Westwood.
One of the issues former UCLA football coach Jim Mora had was the inconsistency in the hiring and promotion of several coaches. Like any program, coaches come and go and the man in charge has to deal with it accordingly.
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It was good for the first few years, but things started to come undone in the latter seasons. One instance was when former defensive coordinator Lou Spanos left for the NFL. Though it is natural for coaches to jump to the pros, this started a chain reaction that Mora would have liked to do without.
Instead of looking for another DC with experience, Mora promoted linebacker and special teams coach Jeff Ulbrich. Ulbrich was a fantastic position coach and thrived with special teams as he was named Special Teams Coordinator of the Year in 2013. Unfortunately, he did not have what it takes to be a DC. It got worse as he was not long for the position, leaving after only one season. That was awkward in and of itself, but his departure left initial and long-last effects.
The timing was bad as this occurred around signing day in 2015. Because of this, one of the top linebackers in the country, Roquan Smith (the #8 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft), decided against his commitment to UCLA and opted for Georgia where he had a fantastic college career.
With Ulbrich’s departure, Mora once again had to make a coaching change which started out well, but ended with one of the worse run defenses in country. The hiring of Tom Bradley was a big one, though it brought some controversy as he was the former defensive coordinator at Penn State during the time that all the madness with Jerry Sandusky arose. Though he was cleared of any wrong doing, he did a great job in his first season, but that unraveled quickly.
Mora also promoted another coach from within. Scott White, who up until that point had a role with defensive quality control, never coached a position group at a major university. This proved faulty as the linebackers have had issues with depth and talent the last few seasons.
Ultimately, as we all know, this did not turn out well.