UCLA's Official Release:
Los Angeles – UCLA Head Football Coach Jim Mora today announced the hiring of two assistant coaches: Noel Mazzone as the Bruins Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach and Jeff Ulbrich as Special Teams Coordinator/Linebackers Coach.
Mazzone, one of the top offensive minds in college football today, spent the previous two years as the Offensive Coordinator at Arizona State under head coach Dennis Erickson, who has since departed the program. Ulbrich joins Mora’s staff after serving for two years as assistant special teams coach with the Seattle Seahawks.
“Noel is an astute offensive strategist who has run numerous offenses in his 30-plus years in football,” Mora said. “We look forward to giving him the opportunity to tutor our student-athletes day in and day-out, especially at the quarterback position.”
Mazzone arrived in Tempe after having served as wide receivers coach for the New York Jets from 2006-2008 and working as a personnel consultant for the Jets in 2009.
After starting his coaching career in 1980 as a graduate assistant at New Mexico, Mazzone received his first full-time position, coaching quarterbacks and receivers at Colorado State. After five years in Fort Collins, Mazzone was hired as quarterbacks coach at TCU. In 1992, Mazzone assumed the same duties at Minnesota.
In 1995, Mazzone was hired as offensive coordinator by Tommy Tuberville, who had just become head coach at Mississippi. Tuberville left for Auburn in 1999 and took Mazzone with him. In 2004, Mazzone, after stints at Oregon State, the San Francisco 49ers, and N.C. State, returned to Ole Miss to serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under head coach Ed Orgeron.
Ulbrich, a former NFL linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers who joined the coaching ranks with the Seattle Seahawks as an assistant special teams coach in 2010, joins the UCLA football staff as special teams coach.
“I had the pleasure of coaching Jeff for part of his playing career; he was always one of the most dedicated and hard-nosed players on the field,” Mora said. “On the day I met him, he told me he wanted to be a coach, and I am proud to help him accomplish that dream.”
Ulbrich played collegiately at Hawaii, where he was teammates with Adrian Klemm, recently named to Mora’s staff. He spent ten years as a player in the NFL before suffering a concussion in 2009 and retiring at the conclusion of that season.
