Intro So at a time when
we have coaches that are leaving in droves. To either not be a head
coach or to go to the NFL. Eric Bieniemy has
decided to accept the offensive
coordinator position for Deshaun Foster at UCLA. A tremendous move and tremendous
hire for Deshaun Foster because he's already
starting to answer questions. Right my big
question for him was, what's your staff
going to look like? Because he got this job really
late in the cycle, right. He is a first time head coach,
former running backs coach. Eric Bieniemy And yes, he is in the UCLA
Hall of fame, which makes him a Bruins fan favorite. But you only get to
be the fans favorite during your first year. After that, you got
to start winning and he's going to need help. So what did he do? He went to go hire
what effectively is a head coach for the
offense in Eric Bieniemy. So I ended up writing about
Eric Bieniemy Bieniemy for Fox Sports and what it means
that Deshaun Foster was able to hire a guy like him. But I think we should start
here because I really think that the conversation
around Bieniemy has been for the most part. About what he hasn't done as
opposed to what he has done. And I think because people are
much more fascinated with what he hasn't done and how it hasn't
gone to plan this last year, we have forgotten just how good
Eric Bienemy is at his job. So I wanted to bring
back a thought. So I'm just going
to say start here. OK the best quarterback
of his generation is Kansas City Chiefs
quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Mahomes
credits Bieniemy with much of his success. So the quote that he gave
in August of last year, talking about this
being his first year without Bienemy since
winning a Super Bowl. Right is that is going
to be hard on you. He's going to really try
to get the best out of you in every single day. He's going to hold you
accountable when you don't want to hold yourself accountable. His coaching made
me a better player. And if you thought it was
Coach speak, he goes on. He says, there's a
reason why he's coaching you the way he's coaching you. He loves you. He loves every guy
that he coaches. You could see that
from jamaal Charles Patrick Mahomes to Adrian Peterson to
Tyreek hill, all guys to me as coach, that they
understand that he loves them and he's going to try to
get the best out of them each and every single day. That's Patrick Mahomes. OK that is the best
quarterback in the NFL. And the thing that I think
people forget as they're talking about Matt Nagy,
as I'm making this point, is I'm going to give
this back to you, dog. Do you know who was the
offensive coordinator when Patrick Mahomes won
his first Super bowl? Hit it wasn't Matt Nagy. You know who has two Super
Bowl rings in four years? It's Eric Bieniemy. OK now, you might
also say, hey, look, he was working for Andy Reid. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Just like Matt Nagy was
working for Andy Reid. You know what I'm saying here.
All right. Add to this Bieniemy
was running backs coach and elevated to
offensive coordinator. Right? so Andy Reid also
gave that dude a shot. And I can't tell
you what that means. I mean, I can because
I'm living the dream. But getting your shot
to do the job, ask for. And what did he do? He did the job, man. And we all thought just
a year ago, Eric Bieniemy was destined to be
an NFL head coach and it did not happen for him. Still trying to figure
that part out because he interviewed for a bunch of jobs. He had a million
conversations with people about getting a
head coaching job and it never came to fruition. So he made the decision
to go to the commanders, I think in part to get out
from under Andy Reid's shadow and bask in his own sunlight. It just didn't go to plan. He was joining a Commanders team
that was already down, right. Ron Rivera was on borrowed time. Dan Snyder was selling
the team, right. Usually not a good
sign for the head coach unless he goes and wins
and they go 4 and 13. Right this while
the enemy is trying to raise up a guy like
Sam Howell ends up having to go to Jacoby Brissett. It doesn't work out. The Revere gets fired. Dan Quinn wants to bring in
his own oc, which, you know, that's his prerogative. And Bieniemy was looking
at being an assistant head coach and a running
backs coach, not even another play caller gig. I guess we have forgotten. I'm sure we have forgotten
the kind of player and Coach that Bienemy was. This is a man who grew
up in Los Angeles county, was an outstanding
tailback over there, spurned USC to go to Colorado. When people are like, what
the hell are you doing? You could have been over here
with Marcus Allen, oj Simpson, Charles white, and you
chose to go to Colorado. He says, yeah, about that. I finished top 10
in the Heisman. I was unanimous All-American
as a tailback at Colorado. I won big eight offensive
player of the year and I rushed for
1,600 yards route to a national championship. At Colorado. Then I played nine
years in the NFL. And then did a little
bit of coaching. Like that's how I would
talk about this, right? If there be any dog would
be walking with my chest out full time all the
time, you wouldn't be able to tell me nothing. I would have both Super Bowl
rings on my middle fingers. That's how it would go down. So him coming to UCLA
is a boon for UCLA. Now can do recruit? We don't know. We'll find out. And it's going to
be like, hey dog, he's going from
having Patrick Mahomes to having Ethan
Garbers and Colin schlenk and Patrick Mahomes. They are not to
which would tell you Patrick Mahomes
and Patrick Mahomes tell Eric Bieniemy got to him. You hear what I'm saying? OK all right. Yeah, he was good. Who made him a Super
Bowl winning quarterback? Who taught that man how to fly? Telling y'all man something
about that dude over there? Y'all going to get
it on the good foot. Now, Deshaun Foster gets
to say, this is who I am. I am going to be the guy
that not unlike Coach Prime and not unlike really great
coaches all over this sport. I'm going to be the hype man. I'm going to make
sure that everybody's pulling in the right direction. I'm going to hire people that
know the game of football and I can trust them
to run their sides. And I am going to Steward
UCLA into the Big boy league of the Big Ten in year one. I'm really, really
excited for what UCLA might be able to do here. Now, we'll see what happens
with the rest of the staff. They don't actually
play Ohio State in 2024. I checked. Right, because I was like, ooh,
this could be juicy with Chip Kelly, Eric bieniemy,
you know, two guys that were offensive
coordinators, pretty damn good
offensive coordinators, head coach in the NFL. If you're chip Kelly,
I'm excited about that. I think that this
could be a lot of fun. Now they got some work to do. We know this. I just pointed out the
quarterback situation, but knowing what the enemy
can do with the offense and knowing what Deshaun
Foster is capable of doing and recruiting,
I'd say the sky is the limit for what they can be.