Eric Bieniemy’s tenure at UCLA is over after one season.
The Bruins are parting ways with Bieiemy, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. The former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator and NFL running back joined UCLA’s coaching staff in 2024 as the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach following the hire of Deshaun Foster as the team’s head coach.
UCLA went 5-7 in 2024 and 3-6 in the Big Ten. The Bruins averaged 5.4 yards per 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.
The 55-year-old Bieniemy interviewed multiple times for head coaching jobs in the NFL while he was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator. He joined Andy Reid’s coaching staff in 2013 when Reid became the head coach in Kansas City. 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.
