Early Coaching Years
Vermeil graduated in 1959 with an M.A. from San Jose State University, where he was the backup quarterback. After serving as assistant coach for San Jose’s Del Mar High School football team for one season, he became the head coach at Hillsdale High School in nearby San Mateo for two seasons, he then went to Foothill College with coach Bill Walker.
During the 1964–65 school year Vermeil was weightlifting coach at College of San Mateo, with his brother as an assistant. The following year he was at Diablo Valley College as a football coach and, in the 1965–66 season, he coached Stanford University's freshman football team.
Vermeil was hired as the NFL's first ever Special Teams coach by George Allen's Los Angeles Rams in 1969. Except for 1970, when he was an assistant coach with UCLA, he would remain with the Rams until 1974 when he was named as head coach by UCLA; he compiled a 15–5–3 record in two seasons (1974–75) as head coach at UCLA, including a 9–2–1 record in 1975 when he led the Bruins to their first conference championship in 10 years, and a win in the Rose Bowl over an undefeated and number 1 ranked Ohio State team.
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