Ken Niumatalolo, who served as head coach at Navy for the past 15 seasons, was hired by UCLA as the football program’s “director of leadership” on Friday.
Niumatalolo is Navy’s all-time winningest head coach, with a 109-83 record, and is the winningest head coach in the Army-Navy series with 10 victories. He was the first head coach in the history of the service academies’ rivalry to win eight straight installments.
Navy fired Niumatalolo, 57, after December’s loss in the Army-Navy Game. The Midshipmen went 4-8 in 2022 and 11-23 over the past three seasons.
In his position with UCLA, Niumatalolo will fill an advisory role to both student-athletes and the coaching staff.
He told ESPN in an interview that he was excited to work with UCLA coach Chip Kelly. The Bruins went 9-4 last season and will join the Big Ten in 2024.
“He’s an established coach, he’s not threatened by me or anything, he’s not worried about somebody looking over his shoulder,” Niumatalolo told ESPN. “That’s how Chip looks at it — anything I can add. They’re not far off, whatever I can bring, but it just felt right.”
–Field Level Media