Malloe, Ex-Husky Assistant Coach and Player, Expected to Join UCLA
Ikaika Malloe, unable to keep his longstanding University of Washington football connection going following the coaching change, will be hired as outside linebackers coach soon by UCLA, according to a report by The Athletic's Bruce Feldman.
In recent weeks, Malloe has been spotted at practices, chatting up Chip Kelly's coaches and other team personnel, as they prepare the Bruins (8-4) to meet North Carolina State (9-3) in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 28.
As a player and an assistant coach in Seattle, Malloe provided a decade of service to the Huskies, making him a program favorite.
He played linebacker and safety for Jim Lambright's UW teams (1993-96) and coached the defensive line and outside linebackers for Chris Petersen and Jimmy Lake (2016-21). He initially was a Husky graduate assistant to launch his coaching career.
Malloe also was considered an effective recruiter, especially in his home state of Hawaii, utilizing a talent pipeline that was first established by Lambright himself.
However, he wasn't retained as new coach Kalen DeBoer replaced 8 of the 10 coordinators and assistants that worked for Lake.
At UCLA, Malloe take a coaching spot vacated by Johnny Nansen, the Bruins' defensive-line coach and a former UW assistant coach in multiple capacities for Steve Sarkisian (2009-13).
Nansen was one of two UCLA coaches who took new jobs at Arizona, with the former Washington State linebacker becoming the Wildcats' defensive coordinator.
Before coming to Washington as a full-time assistant, Malloe coached at Western Illinois, UTEP, Hawaii, Yale, Portland State and Utah State.
On the downside, Malloe held himself responsible for the Huskies' defensive-line shortcomings that began in 2020 and he had to coach without All-America candidate Zion Tupuola-Fetui for most of this past season when the outside linebacker tore an Achilles tendon and had surgery.
The Huskies and UCLA will meet next season on October 1 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
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