Colin Cowherd and Josh Pate take aim at UCLA’s struggling football brand

Brian Schaible

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Colin Cowherd and Josh Pate take aim at UCLA’s struggling football brand image

Colin Cowherd did not mince words when asked about the state of UCLA football’s head coaching position.

“I just don’t think UCLA is a good job,” Cowherd said on his podcast. “I think it’s one of those where it sounds like it should be good. You’re like, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of money in Bel Air, but it’s an international university.’”

Cowherd pointed directly to the challenges of name, image, and likeness funding. “NIL punishes college football programs. You can be a top 10 college basketball program with about four million a year. If you’re not at sixteen to eighteen, which is where USC is at now, I mean, there’s a reason USC’s defensive front looks better. They bought a lot of it. So my take with UCLA is they are bottom half of the Big Ten in NIL because it’s in Bel Air, you can’t really and it’s a public university.”

He added that other factors make the job far less appealing. “Your coaches have to drive 45 minutes or an hour to work. I don’t think it’s a good job…if I was an agent, I would not send my best clients there. I don’t think it has a huge brand. I don’t think it’s a top 30 college football job.”

Josh Pate, host of Josh Pate’s College Football Show, agreed and pushed the point further. “I would go further. I don’t think it's in the top 45. Like, you’re talking about multiple G5 jobs that are better than UCLA.”

Pate said the perception among coaches has shifted dramatically. “I’ve been a little taken back by how many people who in a previous lifetime we would look at the job they’re at and you would think, ‘Oh, it’s a slam dunk. Yeah, if he can get the UCLA job, he’s going to take it.’ That [same scenario] in the modern day [you can] look at it and say, ‘Dude, there’s no way.’ And we’re not just talking about head coaches…I’m telling you…there are pretty high level coordinators out there that would not leave where they are right now for the UCLA job.”

He also criticized the athletic department’s lack of organization in football compared to basketball. “You’re asking me to take over a place where the NIL infrastructure is really discombobulated. They’re not fractionally as put together in football as they are for basketball there.”

Cowherd circled back to the symbolic moment that defined UCLA’s decline in his eyes. “I think there was a moment when Chip Kelly said, ‘I’d rather go be a coordinator at a Big Ten school than the [head] coach of UCLA.’ And to me, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the tipping point.’ Because Chip knows. Chip has coached at Oregon. He’s coached in the NFL. He’s like, ‘No.’ And I know Chip. Chip was at my 60th birthday party. Chip likes LA. Chip and his wife love LA…He just didn’t want the job anymore.”

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Brian Schaible

Brian Schaible is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is an award-winning journalist with over 25 years of experience covering college and professional sports. Brian holds a master’s degree in journalism/public relations from Kent State University.