coaching staff

The fallout from UCLA coach DeShaun Foster’s dismissal deepened Wednesday when interim coach Tim Skipper disclosed that defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe had agreed to “mutually part ways” with the team, depriving the Bruins of one of their most respected assistant coaches.

Meeting with reporters for the first time since he was selected to coach the team for the rest of the season, Skipper said he didn’t know the specifics of Malloe’s departure. One person close to the coaching staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, told The Times that Malloe couldn’t get past blaming himself for the team’s 0-3 start, even suggesting that he be fired instead of Foster, so it was agreed that it would be best if he took time to regroup and focus on himself.

UCLA interim head football coach Tim Skipper claps as players participate in practice at Drake Stadium on Wednesday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

It’s believed that Skipper will be given the resources needed to bolster his coaching staff if he wanted to bring in another assistant. In the meantime, Skipper said the team would take a collaborative approach among remaining staff to coaching the defense.

Malloe was a favorite of players and was known for demanding as much from himself as anyone on the team, choking up early last season when he discussed the need to fix the Bruins’ defense. After Malloe made two personnel switches, moving Oluwafami Oladejo from linebacker to edge rusher while elevating linebacker Carson Schwesinger into the starting lineup, UCLA’s defense went on to be a team strength.

Even though UCLA’s defense struggled in the early going this season, giving up 36 points and 431 yards per game, Malloe remained universally adored by players.

“I know some of the defensive guys loved him so much, and sorry to see him go,” offensive tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said. “Initial reaction as a man, he’s a great person, great family person, and he brought so much value to this team. It’s just unfortunate that I feel like he felt somewhat responsible, along with Foster as well. All we can do is support him on his next step, and hopefully he can come back and see the guys at some point.”

There were no immediate roster defections, Skipper saying that every player was accounted for going into one of the team’s longest practices of the season. Players will have 30 days to enter the transfer portal after their coach bid them farewell during an emotional meeting Sunday morning.

DiGiorgio said Foster told the players who were able to attend the hastily arranged meeting early in the team’s bye week to keep their heads up and keep pushing. Making things all the more difficult was the culpability that some players beared for the team’s fortunes.

“I felt somewhat accountable as a player and as a captain,” DiGiorgio said, “of letting him down as head coach.”

UCLA interim head football coach Tim Skipper talks with media before practice at Drake Stadium on Wednesday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Skipper acknowledged the strain of replacing a close friend who had visited his parents’ house and eaten his mother’s cooking, saying he considered Foster part of his family.

“It definitely wasn’t just great feelings and things like that,” Skipper said of the situation, “but we both know we’ve got to move on.”

This is the second time in as many seasons that Skipper will serve as an interim coach after taking over for Jeff Tedford in July 2024 and guiding Fresno State to a 6-7 record that included an appearance in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Having served in an inconspicuous role since his arrival as special assistant to the head coach in the middle of July, Skipper spent part of the last few days introducing himself to players and letting them know about his history as a former middle linebacker at Fresno State who has made coaching stops at eight schools.

First impressions have been positive.

“His initial energy and just the way he is in meetings,” DiGiorgio said, “I think he’s trying to uplift us as athletes and he’s not really trying to focus too much on what happened but more on the future and what we can do.”

Skipper was upbeat in his first public remarks since taking over for Foster, shaking every reporter’s hand before encouraging them to call him “Skip,” his preferred nickname. He said he would treat this bye week as a sort of mini-training camp before shifting into game preparation mode for the Bruins’ Big Ten Conference opener against Northwestern on Sept. 27.

“We are completely resetting,” Skipper said. “We’re not going to dwell on the past, we’re not going to dream about the future. We’re going to worry about right now.”

How do the Bruins go from the Big Ten’s only winless team to one that can start having success?

“We need to change our style of play, as far as how hard and how fast and how physical we play, OK?” Skipper said. “Starting with me and the rest of the staff, we have to make sure we simplify things so guys can play full speed ahead and there’s less thinking. That’s kind of my whole motto.”

Rediscovering the joy in football is part of that new approach. DiGiorgio said players are starting to play music in the locker room again, the offensive lineman bringing in his own portable sound system for everyone to enjoy.

“We’ve got to be able to come out here and not treat practice as practice,” DiGiorgio said, “but more as something that we get to do and we have the ability to be on this team.”

DiGiorgio said players would also meet with athletic director Martin Jarmond every Sunday to talk about how things are going with the team and try to build momentum for the rest of the season. Jarmond received public support for the coaching change Wednesday in a statement from Chancellor Julio Frenk provided to The Times.

“At a top university like UCLA, a successful football program plays a powerful role in building community and strengthening connections,” Frenk said in the statement. “I support Martin Jarmond’s decision to replace the football coach. As the leader of our athletics program, he will oversee the process of hiring a new head coach who will elevate UCLA football to national prominence and uphold our commitment to ensuring the best experience for our student-athletes.”

As far as the rest of this season goes, Skipper said he wouldn’t measure success by wins and losses but style of play.

“We need to get out there and give a product that everybody’s proud of,” Skipper said, “that’s exactly all I’m worried about.”

Ray Montgomery is just three weeks into his interim tenure as Angels manager. And as his responsibility grows, he’s well aware that so does the pressure.

“All blame, no credit,” he said Monday as the Angels began a seven-game homestand before the All-Star break. “And I get that. That’s just how it goes.”

Since taking over as manager on June 20 for Ron Washington — who will remain on medical leave until the end of the 2025 season — Montgomery has guided the Angels (44-46) to an 8-8 record entering Tuesday.

They’ve had the good: taking two of three from the Braves in Atlanta last week. And they’ve had the bad: getting swept by the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre over the weekend.

Montgomery said he understands the expectations aren’t what they were a few years ago — when the Angels lost 89 or more games from 2022 to 2024 — and that the Angels aren’t so far away from their first postseason berth since 2014 thanks to their young core having a few seasons under its belt.

“We’re not here to develop, although that’s a piece to what we do,” Montgomery said. “We’re here to win. And for the Angels, it’s important for us to have an opportunity where we are.”

If anything, there’s a case to be made that the Angels could be over .500 if a few plays had gone their way. Since Montgomery took over as manager, the Angels are 2-5 in one-run ball games, including all three games in the Toronto series.

When asked what the Angels need to do or adjust to end up on the other end of those one-run contests — of which they’d been 17-11 across the full season — Montgomery pointed to big swings and specific plays.

“You can point to the big hits, I get it, but you can also point to the execution on smaller plays, too, that prevent runs,” he said. “We made some mistakes in those games.”

The Angels got one of those big plays on Monday night. Nolan Schanuel drew a walk-off walk for a 6-5 victory over the Rangers, wiping away miscues such as a dropped third strike that led to a score-tying RBI double.

Montgomery, in his fifth year with the Angels — fourth as a member of the coaching staff — turned to a decision he made in Atlanta last week as proof that one moment can change the game.

Against the Braves last week, Yusei Kikuchi had been brilliant. The Japanese left-hander was two-thirds into the sixth inning of his then-scoreless outing. Instead of keeping Kikuchi — at 100 pitches — in to try to finish off the side as he worked through the Braves lineup for the third time, Montgomery pulled the left-hander in favor of right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn with two runners on base.

It backfired. Sean Murphy, who struck out twice against Kikuchi earlier in the game, hit a three-run home run to give the Braves a 3-2 lead, an advantage that would turn into an 8-3 loss.

“If I leave Kikuchi in Atlanta, right, and he gets a guy he handled pretty good during the game, we may sweep that series too,” Montgomery said. “[Games are] magnified now — I get it.”

Decisions like those are where Washington and Montgomery’s managerial strategies may differ. Washington, a longtime MLB coach, comes from an era of giving starting pitchers a longer leash (it goes hand in hand with the Angels using just five starting pitchers so far in 2025).

Montgomery, who comes from a scouting background in his post-playing career, may value analytical strategy more — holding pitchers from facing a lineup a third time through the order and playing matchups more.

Angels catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has played for new-school managers that emphasize analytics such as Kevin Cash, as well as old-school managers such as Terry Collins, says Montgomery toes the line in between both managerial styles.

“He’s got a good feel,” d’Arnaud said. “He trusts the staff, which is really good, and also trusts the bullpen, which is also really good. He has really good communication with every player, lets them know when they’re playing — which is more of a younger thing — and so it’s a mix of both [new- and-old school].”

Strategy could be the difference between Murphy facing Zeferjahn rather than Kikuchi. Strategy may be the difference between a win and a loss — or staying in contention for an American League wild-card spot.

“It’s tough to say,” right-hander Jack Kochanowicz said when asked about the difference between Washington and Montgomery. “You feel like each game is different. It’s hard to really put an identity to either one of them, especially since Ray’s so new to it, too. It’s a small sample size.”

For Montgomery, he said he’s not going to dwell on the could-have-beens. Squarely in the chase — and in the zone between the franchise deciding between buying and selling at the trade deadline — he’s just happy the Angels are in the conversation.

“If you told us coming up on the All-Star break, that we were in the mix a couple games above or below .500 — and I’m not ignorant of the fact that we’ve cost ourselves a few games, we should be a little better than we are — I would be happy with where we sit right now,” Montgomery said.

Mike Gillespie had a premonition about Ben Orloff.

The USC and UC Irvine coaching legend guided Orloff for two years as an Anteater, watching Orloff become the baseball program’s all-time hits leader with his peak bat-to-ball abilities. But it wasn’t Orloff’s eye-popping swing or swift speed on the basepaths that captivated Gillespie the most. It was the future he imagined for his star infielder, the then-Big West Conference player of the year.

“I don’t know how else to say it: His instincts, his clue, his feel for the game, his baseball IQ, is like nothing else,” Gillespie said as Orloff’s collegiate career wrapped up in 2009. “He should be a major league manager. He might be wasted as a major league manager, because they can do so little, in terms of all these little things.”

The American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall of Famer, who died in 2020, continued: “He probably should be a college coach, a college head coach.”

It’s mid-May and Orloff sits in the office Gillespie once occupied. Orloff is bald with a bright smile. He’s just 38, and yet this is his 12th season on the UC Irvine coaching staff — and his seventh as the Anteaters’ head coach.

Orloff settles down at a table, crosses his legs and is ready to reminisce, talk shop — and praise the mish-mosh ballclub that’s set the Big West aflame for the second consecutive season in which it won its second regular-season conference championship under the coach.

“Not many people get their first job ever in college with no coaching experience [and become a] paid assistant coach at a place like UC Irvine,” Orloff said. “I’m aware that I was given opportunities that a lot of guys work a long time to get. I’m trying not to ruin it.”

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff walks on the field during a game against USC on Feb. 18.

(Matt Brown / UC Irvine Athletics)

Gillespie eventually gave Orloff the call back in 2013. The former All-American, who had been playing in the minors since 2009, was hitting just below .300 and had a .379 on-base percentage with double-A Corpus Christi when he decided it was time to return to UC Irvine.

Orloff said he always knew he was going to be a college coach. Whether it was after playing Major League Baseball for 15 years or directly after earning his bachelor’s degree, it was a goal he strived to achieve. But there was only one way he would “quit,” as he put it, and hang up his cleats for a new career: coaching at his alma mater for Gillespie.

Hired in 2013, the then-assistant was fully aware that he knew nothing about the ins and outs of coaching. Sure, he could practice the fundamentals — the basics of fielding and throwing strikes that Orloff still preaches — but much of the job was foreign. All he wanted to do, Orloff said, was to live up to his coach’s expectations.

“I was just extremely motivated to not let coach Gillespie down,” Orloff said. “Now being in this seat, to hire a guy for professional baseball that’s never coached at any level before, you don’t do that.”

He had to learn to recruit — he nabbed outfielder Jacob McCombs (.363 batting average/.448 on-base percentage/.627 slugging percentage) out of the transfer portal from San Diego State, signed junior college infielder Colin Yeaman (hitting .352 with 13 home runs) from College of the Canyons, and has developed Southern California talent such as sophomore starting pitcher Trevor Hansen (8-2 with a 3.14 earned-run average) from Royal High. Orloff said he is willing to sign any player from any level, knowing UC Irvine’s reach is different from blue blood programs, such as UCLA or Vanderbilt.

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff greets outfielder Jacob McCombs during a game.

(Robert Huskey / UC Irvine Athletics)

Orloff remarked that most articles written about the program highlight him. But he is also first to praise his coaching staff, such as pitching coach Daniel Bibona in his 13th year with the Anteaters or hitting coach J.T. Bloodworth, who helped the Anteaters notch their fourth-best batting average in program history a year ago.

“We played together for three years,” he said of Bibona. “Coach Gillespie hired him directly at a pro ball to be the pitching coach. … He does a really good job with these guys.”

“I think we broke every school offensive record last year,” Orloff remarked about Bloodworth’s impact. “This year, the numbers are like the same with a completely brand new group.”

Orloff and his staff brought in 20 new players before the season, restocking a roster that produced a 45-14 record and an NCAA regional appearance in 2024. And the Anteaters haven’t missed a beat. Irvine is ranked 20th in the nation, according to D1Baseball, and is pegged as the top West Coast program in the country — above UCLA — by the National College Baseball Writers Assn., with a No. 11 ranking.

“Winning matters to these guys,” Orloff said of his 39-13 squad. “I think our team has placed what’s best for the team above what’s best for them and I think that’s uncommon, probably in 2025, and so I think it’s why we’ve won.”

Heading into the inaugural Big West Conference tournament, Orloff said UC Irvine can compete with any team in the nation. He points to early-season battles against Nebraska, New Mexico and Vanderbilt — coming up just short of a three-game sweep at the MLB Desert Invitational in February.

When it comes to showing resolve against opponents, Orloff embraces football coach Bill Belichick’s inverse theory of winning — often credited to businessman Charlie Munger’s inversion technique. As Orloff puts it, the technique focuses on how “before you can win, you can’t do the things that make you lose.”

UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff speaks to his players before a game against San Diego on April 1.

(Matt Brown / UC Irvine Athletics)

“You can look and just see how competitive they’ve been and how complete they’ve been,” said UCLA baseball coach John Savage, a disciple of coach Gillespie as a USC assistant and former Irvine head coach from 2002 to 2004.

“He’s clearly, I think, the best up-and-coming young coach in America. I truly believe that.”

With Irvine on the hunt for its first trip to Omaha since 2014 — and Orloff leading the way — the Anteaters might have the right recipe brewing at Cicerone Field.

Gillespie, long before Orloff took the reins, certainly thought so.

“I’m not kidding, he’s a better coach than I am,” Gillespie said in 2009.