List of UCLA Bruins head football coaches

The UCLA Bruins college football team represents University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Big Ten Conference (Big Ten). The Bruins compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 19 head coaches and four interim head coaches since it began play during the 1919 season. From November 2017 to February 2024, Chip Kelly served as head coach of the Bruins.[1] Since February 2024, DeShaun Foster has served as the head coach at UCLA.[2]

DeShaun Foster as an American football running back for the Carolina Panthers.
DeShaun Foster has served as head coach of the Bruins since 2024.

Terry Donahue is the leader in both total wins and seasons coached with 151 wins during his 20 year tenure as head coach of the program. Red Sanders has the highest winning percentage at 0.773. Harry Trotter has the lowest winning percentage of those who have coached more than one game, with 0.156. Of the 19 different head coaches who have led the Bruins, Edwin C. Horrell, Sanders, Tommy Prothro, and Donahue have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

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List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name Season(s) GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT CC NC Awards
1 Fred Cozens 1919 8 2 6 0 0.250
2 Harry Trotter 1920–1922 16 2 13 1 0.156 1 13 1 0.100 0
3 James J. Cline 1923–1924 15 2 10 3 0.233 0 9 1 0.050 0
4 William H. Spaulding 1928–1938 131 72 51 8 0.580 33 34 6 0.493 1 0 0 1
5 Edwin C. Horrell 1939–1944 61 24 31 6 0.443 16 17 5 0.487 0 1 0 1
6 Bert LaBrucherie 1945–1948 39 23 16 0 0.590 15 11 0 0.577 0 1 0 1
7 Red Sanders 1949–1957 86 66 19 1 0.773 47 11 1 0.805 0 2 0 3 1
1954
8 George W. Dickerson 1958 3 1 2 0 0.333 0 1 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0
9 Bill Barnes 1958–1964 68 31 34 3 0.492 15 13 0 0.556 0 1 0 2 0
10 Tommy Prothro 1965–1970 62 41 18 3 0.685 22 10 2 0.676 1 0 0 1 0
11 Pepper Rodgers 1971–1973 32 19 12 1 0.609 12 7 1 0.625 0 0 0 0 0
12 Dick Vermeil 1974–1975 23 15 5 3 0.717 10 3 1 0.750 1 0 0 1 0
13 Terry Donahue 1976–1995 233 151 74 8 0.665 98 51 5 0.653 8 4 1 5 0
14 Bob Toledo 1996–2002 81 49 32 0.605 32 24 0.571 1 2 2 0
Int. Ed Kezirian 2002 1 1 0 1.000 0 0 0.000 0 0 0 0
15 Karl Dorrell 2003–2007 62 35 27 0.565 24 18 0.571 1 3 0 0
Int. DeWayne Walker 2007 1 0 1 0.000 0 0 0.000 0 0 0 0
16 Rick Neuheisel 2008–2011 50 21 29 0.420 13 23 0.361 1 0 0 0
Int. Mike Johnson 2011 1 0 1 0.000 0 0 0.000 0 0 0 0
17 Jim L. Mora 2012–2017 76 46 30 0.605 28 25 0.528 2 2 0 0
Int. Jedd Fisch 2017 2 1 1 0.500 1 0 1.000 0 1 0 0
18 Chip Kelly 2018–2023 69 35 34 0.507 26 25 0.500 1 1 0 0
19 DeShaun Foster 2024–present 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Notes

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  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[3]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[4]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[5]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.

References

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  1. ^ "Chip Kelly returns to college football as head coach of UCLA". ESPN.com. November 25, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  2. ^ "Bruin Great DeShaun Foster Named UCLA Football Head Coach". UCLABruins.com. University of California, Los Angeles. February 12, 2024. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
  3. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  4. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  5. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.