Sources: Eric Bieniemy out after one season as UCLA's offensive coordinator
The former Chiefs offensive coordinator joined UCLA's staff after the school hired Deshaun Foster
Eric Bieniemy’s UCLA tenure lasted a season.
The Bruins are moving on from Bieniemy, sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. The former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator and NFL running back joined UCLA’s staff in 2024 as the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach following the hire of Deshaun Foster as the team’s head coach.
UCLA is making a change at offensive coordinator. Eric Bieniemy is out, sources tell @YahooSports. Bruins finished 117th in total offense this season.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 5, 2024
UCLA went 5-7 in 2024 and was 3-6 in the Big Ten. The Bruins averaged 5.4 yards a play and scored just 18.4 points per game. Only eight teams across the top level of college football averaged fewer points than the Bruins and UCLA scored more than 20 points just twice all season.
Bieniemy, 55, interviewed multiple times for NFL head coaching positions while he was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator. He joined Andy Reid’s staff in 2013 when Reid became the Chiefs’ head coach and was the team’s running backs coach through the 2017 season. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2018 as Patrick Mahomes became the team’s starting quarterback.
However, Bieniemy never got a head coaching job in the NFL and moved on from the Chiefs after the 2022 season. Five NFL teams had job openings that offseason and he interviewed for just one.
Bieniemy became the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders in 2023, but he spent just one season with the team as the organization went through wholesale changes following the season. Washington’s new ownership group changed the coaching staff and hired Dan Quinn as the team’s head coach with former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury serving as the offensive coordinator for No. 2 overall draft pick Jayden Daniels.
Before coaching for the Chiefs, Bieniemy was the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Colorado, for two seasons and had served as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Vikings. It’s unclear just where Bieniemy’s next coaching stop will be and it’d have been hard to fathom four years ago that Bieniemy would be leaving his third job in three seasons at the end of 2024 instead of being the head coach of an NFL team.
