UCLA Football Offensive Line Coach Hank Fraley Takes Job With Lions

Well, that was quick.

Just yesterday, news broke that Hank Fraley had interviewed for a position with the Detroit Lions. This afternoon, the Lions announced that Fraley is their new assistant offensive line coach.

Now, the question becomes who will Chip Kelly replace him with?

One possibility which has been suggested by Bruin Report Online is that he could be replaced by “current offensive line assistant Ramsen Golpashin current UCLA offensive line assistant Ramsen Golpashin, who just came over from Cal about a month ago, and played for Kelly at Oregon, would be a consideration.”

But, I would suggest that another possibility is that Angus McClure could shift over from tight ends to offensive line and stay at UCLA. McClure does have experience coaching offensive line, after all. And, it would potentially be a way to make McClure happy to still be coaching in Westwood.

Now, that may be less likely.

McClure’s son has signed with Sacramento State and being in Reno would put him in much closer proximity to him and other family McClure has in Northern California.

One interesting wrinkle in McClure’s situation is that Ben Bolch of the LA Times reported this afternoon that McClure would also have the title assistant head coach at Nevada.

Another interesting piece of info comes from FootballScoop.com, which reported today that Chip Kelly is hiring Washington State inside receivers coach Derek Sage to a full-time position at UCLA.

Sage would seem to be a replacement for McClure as tight ends coach. Now, there seems to be widespread speculation that Kelly will replace Fraley from within. That means that the two scenarios outlined above would seem most likely.

Kelly could try to keep McClure by offering to have him fill the vacant offensive line spot or he could promote Golpashin. If I were betting on this, I would probably put my money on Golpashin being promoted since it seems like a replacement for McClure has already been hired.

But, according to the Reno Gazette Journal, as of this afternoon, neither UCLA nor Nevada have officially confirmed McClure’s departure. So, it isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility and it’s something that both Kelly and McClure should at least consider.

Either way, Kelly will need to move relatively quickly. He announced on this week’s Bruin Insider Show that Spring Practice starts March 6th.

Go Bruins!