5 Potential Head Coach Candidates for the UCLA Bruins

The college football season is just three weeks in, but head coaching changes have already been made. DeShaun Foster has been fired by UCLA. Here are five potential head coach candidates for the UCLA Bruins.

1. Tony White

Tony White played at UCLA and was a graduate assistant there after his playing career was finished. He has also coached at New Mexico, San Diego State, Arizona State, Syracuse and Nebraska before joining Florida State this year. The defensive coordinator has coached a lot in the west, even if he is currently successful for Florida State.

UCLA is a job that may have trouble drawing a ton of interest, so White being an alum will help. He can recruit on the West Coast, but will also need to have the fan base and donors buy in. With his ties, that is possible, even if Foster was an alum and couldn’t get it done. White is a more experienced coach and can help fix the UCLA defense.

2. Will Stein

Will Stein is a rising offensive coordinator who is currently at Oregon. He has been there since 2023 and has really helped the offense be successful, even with having different quarterbacks running the show. He also has coaching experience at Louisville (where he played), Texas, UTSA and Lake Travis High School.

While he is from Louisville and went to school there, he has coached in the west for most of his career. His current success at Oregon should help give him recruiting ties in California, where he will need to get his talent. If UCLA swings for the fences, they can try to hire Stein, who can turn the offense around at the very least.

3. D’Anton Lynn

Lynn has some familiarity with the program, as he was the defensive coordinator in 2023. He has since moved on and been the defensive coordinator at USC since 2024. Lynn also has experience as an NFL assistant with several stops, which makes him more than qualified for the job.

At USC, Lynn has improved the defense and can do the same at UCLA. He also has coached in California for the last three seasons, which should help his recruiting footprint. Lynn may want to take a different job, but if he wants to live in the same city and take a job now, he can probably get the UCLA job.

4. Dan Mullen

Mullen is currently at UNLV, where he has the Rebels off to a 3-0 start to the season. Before that, he was the head coach at Florida and Mississippi State. Mullen found some sort of success at those schools, but even had success before that as an assistant at Florida, Utah, Bowling Green, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Columbia and Wagner.

At the end of his Florida tenure, Mullen was criticized for his recruiting, but he was still coaching decently. He is doing well to start at UNLV and with the right hires and NIL commitment, can get the recruiting going better at UCLA. If Mullen wants to go back into big conference college football, he could put his name in the ring for the UCLA job.

5. Tommy Rees

Rees has been rumored to be a candidate for the job, as a Los Angeles native with ties to the program. He is currently the Browns offensive coordinator. The former Notre Dame quarterback has been an assistant with Northwestern, the San Diego Chargers, Notre Dame, Alabama and the Cleveland Browns.

Since his playing career, Rees has moved up as a head coach candidate quickly. His dad was a coach at UCLA at one point and his local ties help things. While his future is probably uncertain with the Cleveland Browns, he could start fresh and have his own program at UCLA. The 33-year-old would be young for a head coach, but could bring some more life to the program.  

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