UCLA and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri agreed to mutually part ways, effective immediately, a team spokesperson said on Tuesday. Sunseri’s departure brings additional change to a coaching staff already in flux after UCLA fired coach DeShaun Foster three games into the season and then parted ways with defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe. Tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel will assume offensive play-calling duties beginning this week when UCLA hosts No. 7 Penn State.
UCLA said it has plans to finalize “additional support” on its offensive staff. The expectation is that former UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, who served in the role from 2012-15, will return to the staff as an analyst, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Neuheisel will be a first-time play-caller when he debuts in the role on Saturday. The former UCLA quarterback and son of ex-Bruins coach and quarterback Rick Neuheisel has been on staff since 2018 and served as a graduate assistant, wide receivers coach and most recently tight ends coach. Mazzone, meanwhile, had a prolific run as offensive coordinator and was responsible for the program’s single-season team records for total offense, scoring and passing.
Offensive struggles have been at the center of UCLA’s broader issues this season. The Bruins rank 117th in the FBS in total offense with an average of 321.2 yards per game, and they are even worse at scoring, ranking 132nd with 14.2 points per contest — this, despite the program landing heralded transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava in the spring, a move that injected hope into a program that showed encouraging signs of life down the stretch last year.
Sunseri was also a prized pickup in the offseason. He was part of Indiana’s rise to national prominence last year as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for a Hoosiers squad that made the College Football Playoff as one of the nation’s top scoring teams. His UCLA unit was a massive letdown, however.
The Bruins are in a fight to avoid one of the worst seasons in school history. The struggles came as somewhat of a surprise given the momentum they built in the second half of the 2024 season, but Foster was a questionable hire when UCLA elevated him from his running backs coach role and seemed in over his head at times throughout a brief tenure.
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