When UCLA had its lone hot streak of the season, athletic director Martin Jarmond spoke with the Los Angeles Times’ Ben Bolch, complimenting himself for appointing Tim Skipper as the Bruins’ interim head coach following the firing of DeShaun Foster.
Since then, UCLA has gone 1-4 and dropped to 3-8 on the season. It’s unlikely Jarmond will keep Skipper long-term and the Bruins are back to being a program in disarray. Jarmond hasn’t been cozy with any reporters, so Bolch went a step above Jarmond and wrote an open letter to UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk on Monday.
In the letter, Bolch questioned how UCLA’s previous chancellor, Gene Block, gave Jarmond such a hefty contract extension so quickly into his time in Westwood.
“Why was there a rush to grant an athletic department boss with a shaky track record an extension before you took over and how do you feel about it?” Bolch wrote to Frenk. “And what was the role of interim chancellor Darnell Hunt, if any, in pushing this thing through? Unless you make a bold move to part ways with Jarmond or he leaves for another job, you’re stuck with him through 2029.”
Bolch then dove into UCLA’s stadium issues. The program’s lease with the Rose Bowl is through the 2043 football season but UCLA plans to disregard it to get to SoFi Stadium and deal with the consequences of the move later.
“Are you sure a big enough chunk of the fan base is on board with a move to Inglewood to justify such a jarring and abrupt abandonment of the school’s longtime home?” Bolch questioned. “If you indeed left the Rose Bowl, how would you compensate donors who contributed major gifts to the stadium for capital improvements on the premise that the Bruins would be a tenant through the 2043 season? And why would any business entity ever feel comfortable signing a long-term lease with the school again?”
Bolch finished off his letter by voicing his support for James Madison’s head coach Bob Chesney to take over the UCLA program. Bolch cited that Chesney has had success at schools that Frenk has likely never heard of and can restore the UCLA football program to a level of respectability, which has been missing in recent years.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: LA Times’ Ben Bolch writes scatching open letter to Julio Frenk
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
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