Chip Kelly is reportedly set to add two more assistants to his coaching staff at UCLA, including a coach from another Pac-12 school.
Kelly will hire Washington State outside linebackers coach Roy Manning as the special teams coordinator and San Francisco 49ers assistant defensive line coach Vince Oghubaase for UCLA’s defensive line position, Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Feldman reported Wednesday.
Manning, a former Michigan linebacker, spent three years at Washington State where the Cougars ranked 16th nationally in total defense this season.
The Bruins have struggled on special teams in recent years and were ranked just 10th in the Pac-12 in kickoff coverage last year. UCLA was fifth in the conference in punting in 2017, but gave up the most yards per return (4.2) in the Pac-12.
Kelly’s staff is nearly complete with offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach being the only vacancies left. He currently has nine positions filled and can hire a 10th full-time assistant on Jan. 9 to take over the remaining duties. The head coach was reportedly targeting Washington Redskins quarterbacks coach Kevin O’Connell as UCLA’s offensive coordinator, but the 32-year-old assistant was instead promoted to the Redskins’ passing game coordinator Tuesday.
Kelly is expected to retain defensive line coach Angus McClure, but move the longtime UCLA assistant to tight ends, a position he coached earlier in his 11-year tenure in Westwood. Kelly will also keep wide receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty, running backs coach DeShaun Foster and offensive line coach Hank Fraley for his new staff.
Oghobaase will be the youngest of Kelly’s new defensive coaches as the 30-year-old Houston native is the only one without prior coordinating experience. After serving as a graduate assistant at his alma mater Duke and Ohio State, he worked under Kelly for one season in San Francisco and stayed with the 49ers after Kelly was fired.
The defense will be led by coordinator Jerry Azzinaro, who has coached defensive line at all of Kelly’s head coaching stops. Kelly has also hired former Oregon assistant Don Pellum for the linebackers spot and former Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads to coach defensive backs.
Feldman also reported that former UCLA quarterback Jerry Neuheisel will return to Westwood as a graduate assistant and former NFL quarterback Thad Lewis will join as an offensive analyst. After a brief professional career in Japan, Neuheisel was a graduate assistant at Texas A&M under former UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone last year. Lewis played under Kelly in Philadelphia and San Francisco in 2015 and 2016, respectively.