UCLA Football: Bruins Eyeing Former NFL Player As New Defensive Line Coach

Washington has preexisting ties to head coach Chip Kelly...

With a couple of vacancies still on the coaching staff, UCLA head coach Chip Kelly went through his Rolodex and landed on a familiar name for help. 

According to a report from David Woods of Bruin Report Online, UCLA is set to hire Oregon Graduate Assistant Tony Washington as its Defensive Line/Outside Linebackers coach. 

If the name sounds familiar to UCLA fans, it's because Washington coincidentally has preexisting ties to the coaching staff -- namely Kelly himself. 

Washington was once a prep prospect from Southern California. He earned a scholarship to Oregon during Kelly's era in Eugene. He starred on two of Oregon's Rose Bowl-winning squads. He was also a fixture on the team that won the 2013 Fiesta Bowl. 

An edge rusher/outside linebacker, Washington latched onto the Houston Texans roster after being undrafted. Once his spell with Houston ended, Washington played briefly for the Tennessee Titans before his professional career as a player came to an end in 2018. 

He's since gone into the field of coaching. Washington was a graduate assistant at Nebraska before coming back to Oregon as the Director of Player Development. Under Dan Lanning, Washington was a defensive grad assistant. 

Was a special season, grateful we Finished it the right way! Thankful for it all 🦆 #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/Wti0oYBhjH

— Tony Washington Jr. (@CoachDubb_Drick) January 2, 2024

For the first time in his career, he'll now get a chance to be an assistant coach in an official capacity. With his experience as an edge rusher himself, it only made sense for UCLA to hire him to work with both outside linebackers and the defensive line. 

Last year's defensive line coach, Ikaika Malloe, was recently tagged as the team's Defensive Coordinator. Known as a high-energy guy, Washington should be able to help UCLA's recruiting efforts -- an area sorely needing some juice.