The swear words and biting one-liners that Eric Bieniemy lets loose on a football field never hurt as deeply as the inner dialogue.
If anyone is to blame for what’s going wrong, it’s UCLA’s offensive coordinator, and he’s not afraid to admit it.
“You have to understand, I go back and kick myself – man, ‘Why did I call that game? Why did I do that? EB, what are you doing?'” Bieniemy told the Times on Wednesday with a hearty chuckle.
“Just as I’m hard on them, I’m even harder on myself because it’s my job to make sure I give them the best chance. There are a few calls I know I’d love to take back, and if you could, if I had the opportunity to be a time traveler, certain things would be different.”
After the first two games of Bieniemy’s first season as the leader of an offense that should be the better half of the team, things are not going so well for the Bruins.
The experienced quarterback and running back have waned. The wide receivers have been largely ignored. The offensive line has been shuffled around.
Bieniemy’s West Coast offense has scored just one touchdown in each of UCLA’s first two games before the Bruins (1-1) face No. 16 Louisiana State (2-1) on Saturday at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. UCLA has a 14.5 points average, ranking 126th out of 133 major college teams.
It was a collective yet unique chaos.
“We all took turns when we weren’t doing our thing, and when that happens, I always have to look internally, OK?” said Bieniemy, who makes $550,000 a year under a two-year contract and will also get a $550,000 bonus if he’s still employed by the end of July. “What can I do better to simplify it and make sure everyone understands it? So I’m always over-analyzing myself and making sure I’m giving these people the right information.”
UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers (4) holds his breath after being sacked against Indiana in the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Questions abound about the guru whose offense appears to need guidance. Is Bieniemy’s NFL-like playbook too complex? Does his scheme rely too heavily on the passing game? Are the Bruins prioritizing the wrong receivers?
As evidence of this offense’s potential, Bieniemy pointed to the team’s strong practice performance and an impressive late-first-half push against Indiana last weekend, when the Bruins rushed 78 yards and scored a touchdown in nine plays.
“When it’s all said and done, we just have to go out there and play like we’ve been training to play, you know?” Bieniemy said. “Part of that is getting our guys to understand that they just have to relax and play. It’s still a game, it’s one of the best team sports there is, but it’s still a game and you have to enjoy what you’re doing.”
Coach DeShaun Foster attributed the offense’s problems to execution, saying a running game against Indiana that resulted in just 96 yards would have been fine had a 29-yard run by TJ Harden in the third quarter not been wiped out by a holding penalty.
But Harden no longer resembles the player who was the team’s second-leading runner a year ago with 28.5 yards per game. Garbers’ decline is even more pronounced: The fifth-year senior completed just 54% of his passes for 409 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions — the latter number matching his total from all of last season.
Players have admitted that the play calls are long and wordy. Garbers said he filled seven or eight notebooks with plays that he copied repeatedly to learn the system. A few days before the Bruins’ game against Indiana, wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant said his teammates drove to Garbers’ house that night to study the plays. Is the difficulty in learning the terminology part of the reason the Bruins often seem lost on the field?
“I don’t think the choice of words is necessarily part of the problem,” Bieniemy said. “It’s just about making sure that we can approach this as a unit, as one, together.”
In many ways, Bieniemy’s presence was inspiring. When he arrived six months ago, he received a hero’s welcome. His new colleagues stood in a hallway at the practice facility and applauded him on his first day on the job. Bieniemy wore one of his Super Bowl rings, but took it off so Foster could get a closer look.
Two college football teams with completely opposite trajectories enter the third week of the college football season.
“It’s time,” Bieniemy said that March day, alluding to the big plans of a program that hasn’t won a major bowl game in more than a quarter century. “It’s time.”
As part of this transformation, Bieniemy also added a little pizzazz to match the bling-bling and mixed a few choice words into his message.
After Garbers dropped the ball during spring training, Bieniemy barked, “Ethan, pull yourself together and fix this…!”
When the offense didn’t show the toughness he would have liked, Bieniemy yelled, “Put on a hat, a… hat, and let’s play ball!”
A false start prompted another dig from Bieniemy. “If we don’t get the … snap count right,” Bieniemy shouted, “you can’t play!”
Instead of covering their ears, players praised Bieniemy’s attentiveness and said he offered as much praise as criticism.
“He’s very loud and yells at you when you do something wrong,” Garbers said, “but he’s your biggest fan when you do the right thing. He’s the perfect balance between your best friend and your coach.”
Bieniemy is one of the few two-time Super Bowl winners with something to prove. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that Bieniemy failed interviews with 15 NFL teams for head coaching vacancies, raising questions about his qualifications and interpersonal skills. A longtime NFL figure familiar with Bieniemy who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter said he “seems like a bull in a china shop; he’s also almost overly honest.”
During his five years as offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, his work with coach Andy Reid left some with the impression that Bieniemy remained an apprentice, calling plays only in select situations while helping the team win Super Bowls in 2020 and 2023.
“I just say, ‘Hey, what do you like here?'” Reid told the Athletic in 2020 while explaining instances where Bieniemy called plays. “And let him take it and go. We trade off each other.”
Indiana defensive lineman Lanell Carr Jr. (41) celebrates after sacking UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Ron Rivera gave Bieniemy a chance to strike out on his own before last season, hiring him as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Washington Commanders. Among other things, Rivera told The Times, he was impressed by Bieniemy’s knowledge of the roster and his plans for how to best utilize everyone.
“He was very well prepared,” said Rivera, who coached the Commanders from 2020 to 2023. “And then when you start talking about concepts and ideas, you say, ‘Wow, this guy is really, really smart.’ I mean, he had a really good eye for the game and was very impressive when we went through the interview.”
The Commanders won their first two games before slipping to 4-13. An offense that ranked 23rd in the NFL in scoring was widely derided for relying too heavily on the passing game. Perhaps more troubling, Bieniemy’s abrasiveness reportedly caused him to clash with other players. For better or worse, Bieniemy never had favorites.
“He doesn’t say, ‘OK, I’m going to treat this guy special because he’s a star and I’m going to treat this other guy (differently) because he’s not a star,'” Rivera said. “He treated everyone the same, and it’s kind of funny because some of the guys who were stars felt like you shouldn’t talk to them that way; but he talked to everyone that way and that was just him, that’s how he is.”
At the start of his second tenure at UCLA, where he worked as running backs coach for three seasons under coach Karl Dorrell from 2003 to 2005, Bieniemy took a gentler approach, dining with players before yelling at them.
“I sat at the table with him the whole time and we didn’t even really talk about football, just about life, life issues and where he’s from because he’s a local guy too,” said wide receiver Logan Loya, referring to Bieniemy, who moved to Hollywood from New Orleans at age 10 and later played running back for Bishop Amat High. “So it’s cool to see that loop. So we’ve done that several, several times.”
Bieniemy said it was his way of conveying to players that they could come to him and talk to him about anything – football or anything else – to build a relationship and connect on a human level. Foster said Bieniemy critiques the performance, not the performer, a mantra that resonated with players.
“You know, a lot of people, a lot of critics, have a lot to say about him,” said wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. “I say it’s the exact opposite: You have to get to know Bieniemy, you have to learn how he moves and acts, and I think he’s very respectful, at least to the players.”
In fact, Bieniemy’s booming voice sometimes carries words of encouragement across the practice field. After Harden made a nice run in the spring, Bieniemy yelled, “Good job! Good job!” On another occasion, Bieniemy told players loitering nearby, “Don’t be afraid to be great! That’s OK!”
Given the complexity of his system, it may take some time for him to achieve greatness. Rivera said he believes the Commanders could have succeeded if Bieniemy had been given a second season to continue teaching his offense to a team with a young quarterback.
UCLA assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is working to teach his scheme to the players.
(Jan Kim Lim / UCLA Athletics)
Rivera, who watched from afar, said a similar timeline could apply to the Bruins.
“If you say, ‘Hey, you have a year to do this,’ man, it’s going to be tough,” Rivera said, “but if he gets time and the players can grow from it, I think they have a chance.”
Bieniemy doesn’t give up easily. He lasted four years as a running back in Colorado despite suffering extreme homesickness and being called the N-word on a predominantly white campus. He finished third in the 1990 Heisman Trophy voting. He lasted nine seasons as a running back in the NFL despite starting just one game. He made progress as an assistant in the NFL despite being repeatedly passed over for head coaching.
His new offense had a slow start? That’s nothing.
“It’s only Week 2, OK? It’s only Week 2,” said Bieniemy, who turned 55 in August. “These guys can accomplish any goal they set their minds to if they just put their minds to it.”
