There have been a lot of theories thrown around about who or what is responsible for the current state of UCLA football. Little doubt here it's Martin Jarmond. Three years ago I posted that he was a publicity hound with an exaggerated resume who took credit for "his" accomplishments which he really didn't deserve: the deal with Jordan Brand/Nike and bringing College GameDay to Westwood for example, not to mention being totally unprepared for what resulted in the disastrous Holiday Bowl cancellation. Now watch him brag about the increased attendance at the Rose Bowl this year, even though they will mostly be fans from the visiting Big-10 schools who buy their tickets at a discount from disaffected Bruin season ticket holders. But the worst was being played by Chip, which got us to this point.
Jarmond has been A.D. for four and a half years and he has never hired a coach in any sport with previous head coaching experience (unless you count the Men's golf coach who was a head coach for one season ten years ago at a school which doesn't exist anymore). So should anyone be surprised that he just continued this pattern? A good manager invests in top, proven employees even if they might cost more because you will profit in the long run.
UCLA is not a place for on the job training, especially for a position as important as head football coach. If Jarmond would have had Foster be the interim coach for this season without a long term commitment until we found our version of Cignetti, he probably would have accepted that given his lack of qualifications for the job and thinking that he could get the permanent job with a successful season (fat chance of that). Of course if Jarmond had forced Chip to commit or leave much earlier like he should have done, we might have had a chance to find an experienced successful coach then. On the other hand, given Jarmond's track record, he probably wouldn't or couldn't have done that either.
The new chancellor, Julio Frenk, when he was at Miami, hired Dan Radakovich as A.D. in 2021. Radakovich previously served as Director of Athletics at Clemson for nine years and oversaw the most successful stretch in Tigers football history as the program won two national championships (2016, 2018), six ACC titles and made six College Football Playoff appearances. He came to Clemson from Georgia Tech, where he served as Director of Athletics for six years.
Now compare that to Martin Jarmond's thin resume, a few years as the Boston College A.D. after a number of years years as an assistant A.D. at Michigan St. and Ohio St. After three mediocre seasons as BC's football coach, Jarmond fired Steve Addazio and hired Jeff Hafley who had many years of experience but only as a position coach in college and the NFL but none as a coordinator or head coach. He went 22-26 in four seasons and then resigned.
Radakovich replaced Blake James, who Frenk fired:
The move comes about six weeks after school president Julio Frenk released a letter to the university community insisting he would increase his involvement with athletics and saying that "we are fully committed to building championship-caliber teams at The U."
The downfall of the football program this season turned Miami into a punch line nationally and that created a sense of urgency to retool the athletic department into a modern day enterprise.
Getting a competent A.D. will be the first step back to respectability and hopefully Frenk might recognize that.