New UCLA head coach Jim L. Mora continues to make adjustments to his staff. With two remaining vacancies, he filled one of them.
Eric Yarber has been hired as wide receivers coach. Yarber is a local product. A graduate of Crenshaw High School, Yarber played at LA Valley College before concluding his collegiate career at Idaho.
Most recently, he was the wide receivers coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Raheem Morris, who was fired after this season.
Yarber was on the same staff as Mora with the 49ers in 2003, serving as the wide receivers coach for then-head coach Dennis Erickson, while Mora served as the defensive coordinator.
The addition to the staff attracting the most attention is the hiring of Sal Alosi as coordinator of strength and conditioning for football, which is a new position on UCLA's coaching staff.
Alosi, a former strength and conditioning coach with the New York Jets, is perhaps most known for reportedly ordering players to make a wall near the team's sideline and trip Miami Dolphins cornerback Nolan Carroll while trying to cover a punt.
The Jets were fined $100,000 for the incident. Alosi was suspended by the team indefinitely before eventually resigning. Alosi, who played linebacker at Hofstra, spent eight seasons with the Jets before his resignation.
Alosi and Mora are reunited. The new UCLA football coordinator of strength and conditioning was a member of Mora’s staff with the Atlanta Falcons in 2006.
"These coaches are all important elements to us moving our program forward," Mora said in a statement. "We welcome them, as coaches and teachers on and off the field, to the UCLA football family."
The school also announced a staff shuffle. Angus McClure's responsibilities have been changed from special teams coach/recruiting coordinator to defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator. Jeff Ulbrich was hired last week as the special teams coach.
Inoke Breckterfield, who was one of the holdovers from former head coach Rick Neuheisel and was originally named defensive line coach, has now been given the option to remain on the staff in a football operations capacity.
As a strength coach, Alosi does not count against the limit of nine full-time assistants Mora is allowed to have by NCAA rules, leaving him one vacancy at defensive coordinator. He plans to have that position filled this week.
