Ken Niumatalolo has a new job, and it’s in the Pac-12

Ken Niumatalolo’s next destination is now public knowledge.

UCLA announced Friday that the former Navy football head coach was hired to be the Bruins’ director of leadership for Chip Kelly’s program.

A school press release announcing the hire said “Niumatalolo will serve as an adviser to UCLA football’s staff and student-athletes.”

Niumatalolo, Navy’s all-time winningest football coach who interviewed for the open BYU head coaching position in 2015, went 109-83 as the Midshipmen’s coach after taking over following the 2007 regular season. He was fired in December after 15 years in the position.

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During his time as head coach, Navy won six bowl games and, at one point, beat rival Army eight consecutive times, though the Midshipmen were just 2-5 against Army in their past seven meetings.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I thought we stood for something different,” Niumatalolo told ESPN about his firing in December, which happened in the locker room after Navy had lost to Army.

The 57-year-old Niumatalolo, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told the Deseret News’ Tad Walch last month that after being fired by Navy that he received assistant coach job offers from a pair of Big Ten schools and talked to TV networks about possible analyst positions, but he was considering a potential job offer in the western United States.

It wasn’t until he was released from being a stake president that things came into focus.

“That’s where I was looking to go because I want to get closer to my dad and my daughter and her family that live in Hawaii,” Niumatalolo told Walch.