Change has become familiar for UCLA football.

Topping off the major shifts of conference realignment and novelty at the helm, the Bruins’ offensive unit will have a different look in 2024.

Associate head coach and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy – widely touted as the offensive mind behind two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes – has begun igniting a potentially transformative era for UCLA’s offense.

“I like where we are right now,” Bieniemy said. “We still got a long way to go, we’re not perfect. We’re taking the necessary steps in the right direction, so it’s been an improvement.”

The Bruins will have the opportunity to utilize a new offensive play caller for the first time since 2018. Former head coach Chip Kelly ruled UCLA’s play calling duties throughout his six-season tenure before his departure from Westwood in February.

“We got everything in there, the playbook is huge,” said redshirt senior wide receiver Logan Loya. “You could call it (the offense) a buffet – everyone eats.”

Bieniemy – fresh off an NFL stint as an offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders – returned to the college ranks 12 years removed from being the offensive coordinator at Colorado.

Throughout his time in the NFL, Bieniemy was an oft-rumored head coaching candidate and interviewed with more than half of the NFL for a position but ultimately, never landed a job.

After only receiving offers to be a running backs coach or pass game coordinator in the NFL, Bienemy ultimately wound up back in Los Angeles. He has faced criticism for his coaching intensity, one that has continued at UCLA – but been thoroughly endorsed.

“My hat’s off to Bieniemy right now,” said sophomore wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. “He’s a very smart guy. A lot of critics have a lot of things to say about him, but I say the total opposite. You just got to learn.”

Flores, a Notre Dame transfer, is the newest member of a receiving room that coach DeShaun Foster said was the team’s deepest unit. In Flores’ rookie season with the Irish, he racked up 392 receiving yards and maintained an average of 14.5 yards per catch.

“It (transferring to UCLA) was just a better situation for me,” Flores Jr. said. “As of right now, it seems like it’s paid off.”

The Bruins returned their two leading pass-catchers from last season in Loya and redshirt junior wide receiver J.Michael Sturdivant, who finished with a combined 1,252 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.

On top of Loya and Sturdivant’s return, UCLA managed to retain other key players from the ever-looming threat of the transfer portal and added further depth through high school recruitment.

Foster said he believes the wide receiver room to be five or six receivers deep, leaving space for redshirt juniors Titus Mokiao-Atimalala and Ezavier Staples, redshirt sophomore Braden Pegan, redshirt freshman Carter Shaw and freshman recruit Kwazi Gilmer.

On the other side of the ball, Ikaika Malloe has taken on the defensive coordinator mantle from the departed D’Anton Lynn, making him the program’s fourth defensive coordinator in as many years.

Unlike Bieniemy, however, Malloe maintained a scheme closer to that of his predecessor to help facilitate his transition.

“For me as a coordinator, the more we can do the same, the more we can isolate the fundamentals,” Malloe said. “If we change the whole scheme now, this would be the fourth coordinator and fourth different (defensive) package.”

For a defense that last year ranked 10th nationally overall and 14th in scoring allowing just 18.4 points per game, change is nearly inevitable after the departure of first-round NFL draft pick Laiatu Latu, fellow draftee Darius Muasau and both Gabriel and Grayson Murphy.

But, with the arrival of nine defensive transfers – including four on a defensive line that lost five defensive ends – there are players apt to fill gaping holes.

“All these guys that are transferring in, that’s the expectation (to contribute),” Malloe said. “That’s why we brought them here.”