UCLA coach Chip Kelly has moved from one longtime buddy to a different at defensive coordinator, hiring veteran assistant Invoice McGovern to switch Jerry Azzinaro.
The parallels between McGovern and his predecessor are hanging. Each got here to UCLA late of their careers. Each have identified Kelly for many years. Each skilled gaps of at the very least a decade between roles as defensive coordinators.
McGovern, who will flip 60 on New 12 months’s Eve, most lately held that title from 2009 to 2012 whereas at Boston Faculty. His Eagles rose from No. 26 nationally in complete protection throughout his first season to No. 13 in 2010 earlier than taking a tumble, rating No. 70 in 2011 and No. 100 in 2012.
After working final season as the within linebackers coach for the Chicago Bears, McGovern wanted a job after being a part of the employees let go in January when the Bears fired coach Matt Nagy.
Kelly and McGovern have identified one another for many years. They first met as rival gamers whereas in school, Kelly at New Hampshire and McGovern at Holy Cross, and continued to cross paths as coaches on the Soccer Championship Subdivision stage earlier than Kelly finally employed McGovern as his exterior linebackers coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.
“On this career, you have a tendency to remain near sure folks, you are inclined to hit it off with them and keep shut through the years,” McGovern mentioned throughout a 2013 interview after being employed as a part of Kelly’s first NFL employees, which additionally included Azzinaro because the defensive position coach.
McGovern had additionally coached alongside Azzinaro in 1993 at Massachusetts, the place McGovern was the defensive coordinator and Azzinaro the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator. The next season, Azzinaro succeeded McGovern as defensive coordinator when McGovern turned defensive backs coach in his first stint at Boston Faculty. The duo was reunited in Chestnut Hill in the course of the 1995 and ’96 seasons when Azzinaro arrived to teach the defensive position.
Stylistically, McGovern is understood to favor having linebackers primarily function a part of the defensive position to extend strain and fill gaps in protection. He has labored in quite a lot of roles on the FCS, Soccer Bowl Subdivision and NFL ranges as a part of a training profession that has spanned 37 seasons.
McGovern’s arrival at UCLA will give him an opportunity to revive a protection that struggled underneath Azzinaro. The Bruins gave up 26.8 factors per sport final season, rating No. 74 nationally — and that was an enchancment over defenses that had given up 30.7 factors in 2020, 34.8 factors in 2019 and 34.1 factors in 2018.
Kelly and McGovern final labored collectively in 2015. After Kelly’s Eagles employees was dismissed after that season, McGovern turned a linebackers coach for the New York Giants for 4 seasons. He spent the 2020 season as a defensive analyst at Nebraska underneath Scott Frost, one other shut buddy of Kelly.
A star defensive again at Holy Cross who led the FCS stage with 11 interceptions as an All-American in 1984, McGovern started his teaching profession the next yr because the freshman coach at Pennsylvania. His longest uninterrupted teaching stint lined 12 consecutive years at Boston Faculty, the place he rose from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator.
After being changed in that function by Don Brown earlier than the 2013 season, McGovern was anticipated to remain on the Boston Faculty employees as a linebackers coach earlier than Kelly employed McGovern to hitch him in Philadelphia.
Whereas at Boston Faculty, McGovern mentored linebackers Mark Herzlich and Luke Kuechly, who turned Atlantic Coast Convention defensive gamers of the yr.
McGovern will inherit a UCLA protection that's shedding a few of its high gamers. Lineman Otito Ogbonnia is headed to the NFL, striker Qwuantrezz Knight exhausted his eligibility and 9 gamers — together with high edge rusher Mitchell Agude and lockdown cornerback Jay Shaw — entered the switch portal.
However the Bruins are bringing again veteran linebacker Caleb Johnson and promising cornerback Devin Kirkwood, amongst others, whereas importing a handful of potential influence transfers, together with cornerback Azizi Hearn and edge rusher Laiatu Latu. UCLA additionally stays within the working for a number of different transfers who might bolster the protection and ease McGovern’s transition again to the school stage.
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