Potential candidates to watch in Bruins’ search for Chip Kelly replacement

“From enough sources, we thought Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck was kind of the leader in the clubhouse there for a while,” Pierson said. “Not 100% certain, but I’m going off pretty good information that there had been contact between Fleck and UCLA before the Chip Kelly announcement. I know from Minnesota sources this one felt different. His name had been involved with other coach openings, but they felt this one felt different. They feel he’s ready to leave and has always had an affinity for UCLA. So there were some Minnesota sources that thought this was going to happen. I always kind of was a little skeptical because I thought that $5 million buyout and the $7 million a year salary was going to be an issue. I don’t know how it went down. We do know that P.J. Fleck was in conversation with UCLA and then he sent out that tweet saying ‘returning to Minnesota.’ So he’s out.”

“Tommy Rees, he took the job as the tight ends coach at the (Cleveland Browns,)” Pierson said. “We’ve heard a lot of information that he was definitely in the running for the offensive coordinator position at Ohio State and we know he’s very interested in the UCLA job. We know UCLA is interested. [Saturday] there was a lot of people telling me Tommy Rees, there’s a lot of buzz. That was kind of mid-day.”

Rees spent last college football season as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama. He also has prior experience in that same position at Notre Dame (2020-22), where he played quarterback in the early 2010s.

“I want to talk about Tony White. People have been asking us on the message board because we’ve been pretty pro-Tony White,” Woods said. “I first mentioned him in November as, ‘Hey, this job has cratered so much that you need an alum.’ He makes sense because he’s a sitting coordinator who’s pretty good. … I want to make it clear to everyone why this makes sense. First, there’s non-Tony White related realities that I think need to be made pretty clear. UCLA as a job is not at the level that it was when Chip Kelly was hired. There’s been a lot of infrastructure screw-ups, mostly caused by Chip Kelly, but they are now realities for UCLA. The fan base is at its lowest point in recent memory. Donations are at their lowest point in recent memory. NIL, which is a new thing, follows along with that where it is way behind market-peers. It’s in a really, really bad state of being. The next coach needs to bring a ton of energy, but also needs to embrace UCLA and embrace the tradition, embrace the fans, embrace all of this stuff at a level that … having it be somebody who has an affinity and a tie in some way to UCLA — as a good institution of athletics, as something that is a football power — right now might be borderline a necessity. …”

“… Two, he makes sense. We talked about this in generalities, but getting a coordinator who has some upside that you don’t have to break the bank to get makes sense. He’s well-thought of. He put together Nebraska’s best defense in seven years this past season. He runs that Rocky Long 3-3-5 that everyone has found memories of from ‘97. He makes sense. Is he the hottest up-and-comer coordinator on the market? No. But is he in that top 10, top 15? Sure. All these are upside plays. No coordinator is a sure-thing. On top of that, everything I know of him personally will bring the energy, will bring the necessary recruiting, the necessary drive to do all that gritty infrastructure work that needs to happen. And yeah, could all not work out? Absolutely.”

VIP: UCLA football head coaching search hot board updates

“There’s no ideal sitting coach. The guy I would like, and if he were anywhere west of the Mississippi (River) is Jason Candle,” Pierson said. “I like his résumé. I like the type of coach he is. I like the team he puts on the field. He only makes $1.1 million at Toledo. He’s got a little bit of the Midwest thing that we’ve all come to love about Mick Cronin and John Wooden. But I haven’t heard his name. I’ve heard his name mentioned a little, but not really involved. Don’t know if they’ve spoken to him. Don’t know if that ball has been pushed down the road at all. I think mostly because there’s no connection there. He’s not a West Coast coach. That would be the type of guy I would prioritize.”

“Maybe the closest on the West Coast is Barry Odum, UNLV’s head coach,” Pierson said. “He was the head coach at Missouri, he was the [defensive coordinator] at Arkansas. Mixed results at all of his stops. Had a good year last year, I mean, a decent year last year at UNLV, 9-5. … But does he excite me? He would bring possibly his offensive coordinator, who is considered like this young genius, Brennan Marion, with him. Doesn’t excite me that much to where being a sitting head coach is that important here. If you can find someone else, I’m on it.”

“He’s been on the job for a month at Arizona,” Pierson said. “We mention him because, you know, I’m apologizing to Arizona fans, believe me there were conversations with the UCLA administration. There were. We’re giving him a ton of credit. He didn’t get out there and play this up for a few weeks or a few days. He shut it down. We even wrote early from what we know of Brent Brennan, because he is a Bruin and we do know about him is that he’s a loyal guy. I even wrote very early that they’re going to contact him. And they did. And I am pretty confident he’s going to shut this down. He’s too loyal and he’s not going to turn around in a month and dump Arizona.”

“Okay, so we reported that Chris Horton had interviewed, but I retracted that,” Pierson said. “Formal interviews have not happened with Chris Horton. There has been discussion that has happened through intermediaries. That’s through really good sources. That’s as far as that’s gone. He’d like to interview. He’d want the job in a flash. I liked Chris when he was at UCLA. I think he’s a good guy and he’s a potential coach somewhere. If we’re talking about hiring guys who aren’t sitting head coaches and coordinators, he might be a little inexperienced compared to others. He could be really good. A lot of the things we said about the other guys he has.”

“Overnight and then this morning, even as we are on this podcast, Eric Bieniemy should be added to our list,” Pierson said. “I don’t know if he’s interviewed, but I know there’s been contact.”

“That’s a nope from me,” Woods said. “Full NFL experience and there’s a reason he isn’t — he’s not well-liked and there’s some history there. He wasn’t a full-time play-caller until recently. Yes, he comes from the Andy Reid tree, but he wasn’t until recently. The (Washington) Commanders didn’t retain him. I don’t know. There’d be a lot of red flags there for me in the vetting process to get past. And it doesn’t seem like any NFL teams are getting past it. I would have concerns there if I was looking at him.”

“Yeah, the Troy Taylor thing. That feels like due diligence to me. I can’t fathom that that would be the option they end up choosing,” Woods said. “That would be in the candidacy of sitting head coaches who are middle-tier. There’s nothing about that that’s exciting.”

“Tom Herman, I continue to hear his name mentioned, but I haven’t heard that they’ve spoken to him,” Pierson said. “I have not heard anything on David Shaw. It feels like we’ve been in this search for a long time. I haven’t heard anything about Matt Campbell except mentioned initially. Justin Wilcox except mentioned initially. Haven’t heard that UCLA reached out and spoke to him. I did hear that Brian Hartline, the former offensive coordinator from Ohio State — I guess I don’t know what his title is now — that there was an intention to speak with him. I don’t know if they did. I haven’t heard that they spoke to Barry Odom. I haven’t heard that they spoke to D’Anton Lynn.”