It looks like Eric Bieniemy won’t be rejoining the Kansas City Chiefs in 2024 after all.
According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter and college football insider Pete Thamel, Bieniemy is joining the UCLA Bruins as their new associate head coach and offensive coordinator. Per the report, he’s joining the team on a two-year deal.
While it may seem like a hire that came out of nowhere, Bieniemy actually has pretty strong ties to Southern California and UCLA in particular. He attended high school in the area in the 1980s, played for the Los Angeles Chargers in the 1990s and served as the UCLA running backs coach under Karl Dorrell from 2003 to 2005 before embarking on his NFL coaching career.
“I attended high school there. I started my career in the league here (with the Chargers). It’s obviously great to be back with the Bruins, where I was previously employed,” Bieniemy said in a statement, via Schefter.
Bieniemy served as offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2018 to 2022, winning two Super Bowls with the team before leaving to take the same job with the Washington Commanders in 2023.
But after the Commanders finished the year as one of the league’s worst teams, they fired head coach Ron Rivera and dismissed Bieniemy as well.
There was some speculation that Bieniemy might rejoin the Chiefs since he spoke to the team prior to Super Bowl LVIII.
However, it appears that he’s going to give the college coaching ranks a try.
On one hand, it’s a job that’s likely to be pretty lucrative while also having less pressure than its NFL counterpart. But on the other hand, it seems like a fall from grace for a coach seen as a top candidate for an NFL head coaching job just one year ago.