Indiana losing key offensive assistant to UCLA
Indiana football is soon to sustain one massive hit on their coaching staff. The Hoosiers are in the process of losing a pivotal offensive assistant to a Big 10 Conference foe: UCLA.
The Bruins are luring co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, per Zach Osterman of the Indianapolis Star Thursday. Osterman adds UCLA won’t have him officially until the Hoosiers’ season wraps up.
Meanwhile, Osterman adds that IU has agreed to multi-year contracts for the remaining assistant coaches.
UCLA’s decision comes off the heels of DeShaun Foster firing Eric Bieniemy. The head coach parted ways with the multiple Super Bowl winner on Thursday. Bieniemy’s offense stumbled badly in 2024 — ranking 117th overall. The Bruins were worse in scoring offense, falling to 126th in the nation. UCLA finished 5-7 overall, but went through the first six games failing to surpass 20 points.
Sunseri, meanwhile, established himself as a strong right-hand man for head coach Curt Cignetti. IU rose to 24th overall in total offense by racking up 438.8 yards per game. The Hoosiers also scored 68 touchdowns during the regular season — which led the nation.
Sunseri’s coaching elevated Kurtis Rourke too. The IU quarterback delivered new career-bests in touchdown passes at 27 and in average yards per play at 9.9. Rourke, who transferred in from Ohio University, also suffered only four interceptions.
The 35-year-old Sunseri will be making his first coaching trek to the West Coast. The Pittsburgh native has always coached in the eastern time zone. He launched his coaching career at Florida State as a quality control assistant in 2016. Sunseri held a similar role at Tennessee in 2018. He then joined Nick Saban at Alabama in 2019 to 2020 as a graduate assistant.
Sunseri has spent the last four seasons working under Cignetti. That includes 2021 to 2023 with James Madison University. He coached the Dukes quarterbacks during his time at JMU. Cignetti handed Sunseri his first partial role in leading an offense as a co-coordinator.
Indiana currently awaits its College Football Playoff fate. The Hoosiers are 11-1 overall and ranked No. 9 overall.
