UCLA finalizing deal to make Kevin Coyle defensive coordinator

Tim Skipper operates an ally of trust to help them stabilize the UCLA football team for the rest of the season.

The interim coach finalizes the hiring of the veteran assistant Kevin Coyle as a member of his defensive staff in a decision that could strengthen the team after the departure of the defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, according to an unauthorized person to discuss it publicly because the hiring has not been completed.

The hope is that Coyle could join the Bruins before opening the game of the Big Ten conference in Northwestern on Saturday.

It would be a familiar twinning.

When Skipper was an interim coach of Fresno State last season, Coyle led a unit that ranked third in the Mountain West conference in total and fourth in defense of score to help the team reach Idaho Potato Bowl.

The challenge could be much larger with the Bruins (0-3), which abandoned 36 points and 431 yards per game to rank among the worst defenses of major university football. Coyle should help staff in what Skipper described as a collaborative approach to manage defense.

Coyle, 69, started this season as a senior defensive analyst at Syracuse. He made several judgments as a defensive coordinator at the college and the NFL, serving as such in Holy Cross, in the United States Mercihant Marine, Maryland and Miami Dolphins. In 2019, Coyle was head coach of Atlanta legends of the American football alliance after winning a national title the previous season with Louisiana State as a defensive analyst under coach Ed Orgeron.

Coyle spent two stays as a defensive coordinator of Fresno State, first under the coach Pat Hill from 1997 to 1997 before returning before the 2022 season and staying throughout the 2024 match. Coyle also spent 13 seasons with the NFL Cincinnati Bengals as a corner trainer and defensive back coach.

Coyle replaces Malloe, a universally loved and respected assistant who left the team last week as part of what was described as a mutual separation of the tracks after the disappointing start of the team. The defense of the UCLA, filled with possible NFL players such as Laiatu Latu, Carson Schwesinger, Oluwafemi Oldojo and Jay Toia, had been a force in 2023 and 2024 before undergoing a steep drop at the start of the season.