Eric Bieniemy’s UCLA tenure lasted one season.
The Bruins are moving on from Bieniemy, sources told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. The former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator and NFL running back joined the UCLA staff as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 2024 following the hiring of Deshaun Foster as the team’s head coach.
UCLA is making a change at offensive coordinator. Eric Bieniemy is out, sources say @YahooSports. Bruins finished 117th in total fouls 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 per game and scored just 18.4 points per game. Only eight teams at the highest level of college football averaged fewer points than the Bruins, and UCLA scored more than 20 points only twice all season.
Bieniemy, 55, interviewed several 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 served as the team’s running backs coach through the 2017 season. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2018 when 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 vacancies open this offseason and he interviewed for only one.
Bieniemy became the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders in 2023, but he spent only one season with the team as the organization underwent major changes after the season. Washington’s new ownership group changed the coaching staff and hired Dan Quinn as the team’s head coach, while former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury served as 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 where Bieniemy’s next coaching stop will be, and it would have been hard to imagine four years ago that Bieniemy would leave his third job in three seasons at the end of 2024 instead of being the head coach of an NFL team.
