Lea Hired As Linebackers Coach

UCLA head football coach Rick Neuheisel announced today that Clark Lea has been hired as an assistant coach. Lea will coach the linebackers and Tim Hundley will coach the secondary. He replaces cornerbacks coach Carnell Lake, who left the staff Monday due to family reasons.

This past season, Lea coached the Bruin linebackers as a second-year graduate assistant. Chuck Bullough, in his first year as defensive coordinator, focused his efforts on the entire defense while Lea was hand-on with the linebacking corps.

"Clark is an outstanding young coach with a very bright future," said Neuheisel. "I thought he did a fine job this past season with our group of linebackers. In addition, he is a dogged recruiter. Even though he was not allowed to go off-campus, he made a great impression on recruits and their families when they came to campus and built great relationships with several of the young men who signed with us, most notably Aramide Olaniyan."

almost 2 years ago Ryan Rosenblatt 13 comments 0 recs |

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I don't even know who this guy is

and CRN still manages to pump me up about him!

All. The. Right. Moves.

But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.

by tasser10 on Feb 24, 2010 1:27 PM PST reply actions

I have no reaction ...

I never, ever heard his name until this post was posted.

http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/lea_clark00.html

That’s his full bio, though it’s mostly the same as the link Ryan provided. He played for Vanderbilt. If it says where he is from originally, I didn’t notice it. I wonder if he has ties to the south, since he played in the SEC (I mean, I wonder if he was from the south originally.)

by Achilles on Feb 24, 2010 1:32 PM PST reply actions

Yes

Same here. Have to say surprised by how quickly this was announced because my impression was CRN was going to take his time and interview candidates. Perhaps that was happening in the background last few days before Lake’s decision?

by Nestor on Feb 24, 2010 1:37 PM PST up reply actions

The couple things I know about him

is that he’s a high energy guy who is a stud recruiting. We have a lot of coaches who have been around and know their stuff. They’re highly, highly qualified, but one area that our staff is a little short in is fire and energy, specifically on the practice field. I think Lea will help in that respect, plus any time you can get something done in recruiting, in this case ensuring you hang on to a great recruiter, you’re making a good move. I know some 2010 freshmen who said they absolutely loved him throughout the process. Getting him out on the road will only make it better. I don’t know a ton about him, but everything I have heard makes this sound like CRN identified his weakness on the staff and moved to improve it. I like it.

For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 24, 2010 1:42 PM PST up reply actions

Good to know

Ryan – if you have time I think it might be a good idea for your to share that perspective in a new post. I’d bet many others would like to read that as well. We can then bump down this fanshot.

A’s analysis below makes sense to me as well.

by Nestor on Feb 24, 2010 1:48 PM PST up reply actions

I'll do it now

For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 24, 2010 1:54 PM PST up reply actions

My assumption ...

and it’s only an assumption, is that Lea did a nice job last season working with Bullough (who was DC and LB coach) and that RN and CB felt most comfortable staying the course.

The only real change is that now Hundley will be handling DBs, instead of splitting safeties and corners with Lake (and Bullough no longer has responsibility for a position.)

If I were a cynic, I’d decry the fact that once again we’ve hired from within and wonder if this was a cost-saving move. But, I’m not a cynic today (and, also, I don’t want to become the topic of the day in the comments of Jon Gold’s blog … :) … )

by Achilles on Feb 24, 2010 1:43 PM PST up reply actions