Former Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr made it clear late last year that he was interested in coaching at the college level.
There are “dream things” that you want to do, he said, a few months after retiring from the NFL following 11 seasons with the Raiders in Oakland and Las Vegas and with the New Orleans Saints.
Coaching, that was it. So Carr made some calls and sent out some feelers, including to Fresno State, where he had set 27 single-season or career school records and in 2017 had his jersey number retired.
But he ended up at UCLA in The Big Ten Conference as a special advisor to Bruins’ coach Bob Chesney, and not at his alma mater in the new Pac-12.
How did that happen? The short answer is, the Bruins gave him a short, one word answer, Yes. As Carr explored potential opportunities, Chesney decided it best to commit first and to ask questions later.
“I just couldn’t believe that part, especially since I didn’t know coach Chesney,” Carr said. “I didn’t play for him, I’d never met him. I didn’t know (offensive coordinator) Dean Kennedy. And there was great interest. It wasn’t, ‘Let’s figure out what that looks like.’ They were like, ‘Yes, now let’s figure out what that looks like.’ There was just a little bit of a difference there. It felt very welcoming. That’s what made it so easy.”
It was nothing against Fresno State, or any other school. Carr and his family are back in Fresno. It’s where they intend to stay. “We love it here,” he said. It was, really, about UCLA.
“I bleed Bulldog red. I’ll root for the Bulldogs no matter where I am, everybody knows that,” Carr said. “I don’t think it was a negative thing. But UCLA just jumped at it, and it was so overwhelming. It was evident where I should be.
“It was just very clear that UCLA was like, ‘We want to do this … now.’”
Fresno State coach Matt Entz acknowledged speaking to Carr about getting into coaching, texting. “I hope someday we can get him here,” the Bulldogs’ coach said.
The opportunity to get into coaching is something that Carr and UCLA general manager Darrick Yray had talked about for a while. Yray, who was a student assistant under former Bulldogs’ coach Pat Hill and worked his way up to a role in football operations, met Carr when he was on his official recruiting visit in 2009.
They have been close friends ever since, while Carr was in the NFL and Yray was at Oregon State and then Florida State before moving back west.
“He kind of called me and said, ‘Hey, I want to do this. Do you think there would be an opportunity for me to work at UCLA?’” Yray said. “My first answer was, ‘Are you serious?’ Then, two, was, ‘Yes.’ I told him I’ll go talk to (Chesney), but the answer is going to be yes.”
There were no questions about what a role on the Bruins’ staff would look like, what he would do in fall camp, during the season. They’d figure that out, as they went along.
“I said to Derek, before we do this, you need to come down here and make sure you like it, and you believe in what we teach and how we practice, before you say, ‘I’m in,’” Yray said. “So he did that, that was in the spring, and he sat down with (Chesney).”
Carr said he and Chesney spoke for about 10 minutes. That was it, it was done.
“I was waiting for a little back and forth,” Carr said. “It was like, ‘Yes … Oh, OK. So we’re doing it?’ He’s like, ‘Let’s do it. We’ll figure it out.”
“I think when Derek Carr asks to help out, the answer is yes,” Chesney said, after the announcement that the former Bulldogs’ quarterback was joining the Bruins’ staff.
Carr said it has turned out better than he could have expected. He spent some time in Southern California during fall camp. He can work from home, watching practice film, and connect with Chesney, Kennedy and Nico Iamaleava or any of the Bruins quarterbacks. During the season, he will assist with game planning.
In his meeting with Chesney, Carr said he told the Bruins’ coach that he wanted to be a head coach someday, that he wanted to learn and was willing to do anything.
“We just ran with it,” Carr said. “The access and what they’ve allowed me to do has been awesome. I’ve been blown away by the acceptance, the access, by their teaching and helping and allowing me to do whatever.
“For me, I didn’t want to just check a box: ‘Hey, he’s part of the staff.’ I want to provide value to UCLA, as much as I can. I’m not calling plays. I’m not making decisions or anything like that. For what it has been up to now, it has been great. I’ll turn on practice tape and there’s three or four plays that we talked about. Dean was asking me how we did certain things, and they’re running them, and it’s working or, ‘Ah, this one didn’t work. Why didn’t it work?’ It’s a real thing. That’s super cool for me, because I can really make an impact.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2026 at 10:35 AM.
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