Reports: UCLA Football Defensive Coordinator Jerry Azzinaro Resigns
The Bruins have lost their fifth coach and third coordinator of the offseason.
Jerry Azzinaro has resigned as UCLA football’s defensice coordinator after four years in the position, Bruin Report Online and others reported Wednesday morning. Azzinaro has headed up the Bruins’ defense ever since coach Chip Kelly arrived prior to the 2018 season, and Kelly hasn’t coached without him since 2008.
Azzinaro joined Kelly’s staff in Eugene when he became head coach at Oregon, and then he followed Kelly to the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers as a defensive line coach all along the way.
After spending one season at Cal while Kelly took a hiatus from coaching, Azzinaro came back into the fold as UCLA’s defensive coordinator when Kelly took the job in Westwood. Since then, the Bruins have continued to post some of the worst defensive statistics in the nation, something that was not too uncommon for Azzinaro in his previous stops as a defensive coordinator more than a decade earlier.
UCLA ranked No. 104, No. 116, No. 103 and No. 73 in scoring defense across Azzinaro’s four seasons. Even when the Bruins improved to 8-4 in 2021, they did so despite the defense regressing from 66th to 79th in the country in points allowed per drive.
Looking at UCLA’s 12 defensive coordinators since Terry Donahue retired in 1995, Azzinaro has allowed the 11th-most yards per game, only beating out Nick Aliotti, who only led the unit in 1998. Azzinaro is the longest-tenured of those 12 coordinators, too, as he was the only one to make it through four seasons in the position. The three worst defensive seasons against the pass in program history all came under Azzinaro – 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Whoever replaces Azzinaro will be working with a new-look roster, since seven starters have already left the program. Defensive lineman Datona Jackson, linebacker Jordan Genmark Heath, striker Qwuantrezz Knight, cornerback Obi Eboh and cornerback Cameron Johnson are out of eligibility, defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia and safety Quentin Lake have declared for the 2022 NFL Draft, edge rusher Myles Jackson transferred to Indiana, safety DJ Warnell transferred to Arizona and edge rusher Mitchell Agude could declare for the draft in the coming days as well.
Defensive line coach Johnny Nansen left to become the defensive coordinator at Arizona, and outside linebackers coach Jason Kaufusi followed him to Tucson not long after. The pair has already been replaced by UNLV’s Chad Kauha’aha’ha and Washington’s Ikaika Malloe, respectively.
The rest of the coaching staff is up in the air as well, with offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Justin Frye leaving for Ohio State and tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Derek Sage leaving for Nevada earlier this week.
The biggest domino left to fall remains Kelly himself, considering he has yet to sign an extension and is four days away from entering lame duck territory in the fifth and final year of his initial contract. Kelly’s $9 million buyout drops to zero after Saturday, making that a widely accepted deadline for the two sides to reach an agreement.
The Azzinaro move’s impact on those negotiations is undetermined, and could go a number of ways. Azzinaro’s employment may have been a sticking point in the talks, with UCLA demanding Kelly replace him, or it could be a sign that Kelly is about to walk away himself.
All signs and reports have pointed to Kelly staying at UCLA, but everything remains undetermined for the moment.
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