UCLA just might have taken two giant steps toward hiring the right football coach.
Last week it was announced that Bob Myers and Adam Peters were part of a search committee that also included Casey Wasserman, Erin Adkins and Eric Kendricks.
All five members can add value, but it’s those first two names that are most intriguing.
Myers and Peters were part of the search team that hired Dan Quinn, who took the Washington Commanders to the NFC Championship game in his first season. Myers, the onetime UCLA forward who was a member of the school’s last basketball national championship in 1995, also presided over a glorious 11-year run as general manager of the Golden State Warriors in which the team hired coach Steve Kerr and won four NBA titles.
These guys know what it takes to win and how to get there.
Peters, a former UCLA defensive end who played for coach Bob Toledo in the late 1990s, has enjoyed many successes in scouting, player personnel and executive management, helping to clean up the mess left by Chip Kelly when Peters joined the San Francisco 49ers as vice president of player personnel in 2017 after a previous season in which the team went 2-14 under Kelly.
An excellent ESPN story by John Keim detailed the backstory on the search that led to Quinn’s hiring with the Commanders. Among the questions that Myers asked Quinn during the interview process was about the most adversity he had faced. Quinn talked about handling the aftermath and being accountable for his role as coach of the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI when they lost a 28-3 lead during a meltdown against the New England Patriots.
Asked more generally about what he would have changed about his time with the Falcons, Quinn discussed his blind spots and how he addressed them during his subsequent three seasons as defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys.
According to the ESPN story, the Commanders ranked each coaching candidate in terms of leadership, intelligence, honesty, integrity, consistency of personality, communication and ability to build a staff. Quinn scored the highest of all candidates, meaning that the Commanders ended up with the coach who they thought could do the best job.
Can the Bruins land their top target? It’s going to be a lot harder than merely identifying excellent candidates given there could be limiting factors that preclude UCLA from securing its No. 1 choice. Among other things, the Bruins could be constrained by perceptions about their athletic department culture and lack of resources, particularly when it comes to name, image and likeness funds.
Candidates impressed by the committee might rightfully point out that with the exception of Adkins, the executive senior associate athletic director, these aren’t the people they’ll be working with once they take the job.
Can the committee sell candidates on UCLA’s offering the needed support to thrive? The Bruins might be best served by letting Myers and Peters lead the way and carry the most weight in selecting the successor to DeShaun Foster.
Is it too late into the quarter for the Bruins to drop the class known as UCLA Football 2025?
Quarterbacks: B+. Leading the way at quarterback and de facto running back, Nico Iamaleava is making the best of what he has to work with, which isn’t much.
Running backs: D. At this point, the rotation needs to be pared down to Jaivian Thomas and Anthony Woods.
Receivers: B. Rico Flores Jr. made a team-high four catches for 43 yards in his return, giving Kwazi Gilmer a top-level complement.
Offensive line: F. Moving these pieces around is sort of like the situation involving deck chairs and the Titanic.
Defensive line: D. Northwestern doesn’t really have a competent run game, but it did on Saturday.
Linebackers: B. With double-digit tackles in every game, JonJon Vaughns gives the Bruins someone on a leaderboard.
Defensive backs: C. Started making plays as part of a second-half shutout that kept their team in the game.
Special teams: A. Pencil in Mateen Bhaghani, now seven for seven on field goals, for the Red Sanders Award that goes to the team’s most valuable player.
Coaching: C. Hey, at least interim coach Tim Skipper & Co. tried something different by going with a new defensive scheme that worked in the second half.
Olympic sports spotlight: Women’s tennis
Carrying over a strong finish to last season, when she notched the deciding point in her team’s NCAA tournament upset victory over Vanderbilt, Ahmani Guichard is once again doing big things for the UCLA women’s tennis team.
The junior earned her first career Big Ten player of the week award after winning four of five matches at the recent ITA All-American Championships in Cary, N.C.
Guichard’s run ended with a loss to North Carolina State’s Mia Simms to start qualifying before Guichard defeated Rice’s Divna Ratkovic in consolation play.
The Bruins, who also return All-Americans Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, next play in the ITA Regional Championships beginning Oct. 16 in San Diego in their continuing bid to top their finish from a season ago, when they tied for ninth in the NCAA championships.
It’s an honor
Former UCLA volleyball stars Art Alper and Annett Buckner Davis have been selected for the 2026 class of the Southern California Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame, with induction ceremonies set for May 3 in Anaheim.
Alper was a left-handed guard who played for UCLA’s basketball team under coach John Wooden from 1948-1951 before going on to success as an international volleyball player. Alper, who died last April at age 96, was part of the Hollywood “Y” Stars who won the U.S. national open championships from 1956-59 and starred as an outside hitter on U.S. national teams from 1955-59, helping them win a Pan Am Games gold medal in 1959 with a victory over Brazil.
Buckner Davis was the 1991 Pac-10 freshman of the year when she helped UCLA win the NCAA championship with a victory over Long Beach State. She went on to become the Pac-10 player of the year in 1994 and played in the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics on the beach, securing a fifth-place finish with partner Jenny Johnson Jordan. She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015.
Remember when?
During one of the dreariest UCLA football seasons in school history, it might be good to get a little lost in history.
The Bruins have a proud football tradition, having spent 553 weeks in the Associated Press poll to rank No. 16 among all teams. There was also a time when UCLA dominated its series with Penn State, winning four consecutive games in the 1960s.
The final Bruin victory, at Beaver Stadium in 1967, might have been the most dramatic. Unbeaten and ranked No. 3, UCLA spotted Penn State a touchdown and trailed, 7-3, before a blocked punt by the Bruins’ Vic Lepisto bounced into the end zone, where it was recovered by UCLA tackle Hal Griffin for a touchdown.
UCLA quarterback Gary Beban added a three-yard touchdown run and the Bruins held on for a 17-15 triumph after Beban intentionally fell to his knees to run out the clock. Beban would go on to win the Heisman Trophy — the only player to do so in school history — as UCLA finished the season with a 7-2-1 record.
With Penn State (3-1 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) headed to the Rose Bowl on Saturday as a heavy favorite against the winless Bruins (0-4, 0-1), the only UCLA highlights might come in old game footage on the scoreboard.
Opinion time
What’s your level of optimism that UCLA’s search committee for its next football coach will help make the right hire?
They got this, no problem
They’ll make an OK selection
Get ready for more mediocrity
It’s only going to get worse
Click here to vote in our survey.
Poll results
We asked, “Who would you rather have as UCLA’s next football coach?”
After 454 votes, the results:
32.6%, a rising star such as Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein
25.6%, an exciting lower-level coach such as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall
20.9%, an existing Power Four coach such as Washington’s Jedd Fisch
20.9%, a wild card such as Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin?
In case you missed it
UCLA officially on 0-12 watch after late rally fizzles in loss to Northwestern
UCLA reveals football coach search committee steeped with pro sports experience
They’re not in the gutter yet: At 0-3, the UCLA football team went bowling
Can UCLA overcome its perception problem to hire its next great football coach?
Have something Bruin?