UCLA running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu is close to being promoted to offensive coordinator. (Brad Graverson/Staff)

UCLA appears close to promoting running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu to offensive coordinator, filling the vacancy left by Noel Mazzone earlier this week.

Polamalu’s name has been floated for the position ever since Mazzone took the same position at Texas A&M earlier this week. 247 Sports first reported this morning that Polamalu has accepted the offer.

The 52-year-old held the title of offensive coordinator at USC from 2010-12, but ceded playcalling duties to then-head coach Lane Kiffin. He has served as UCLA’s running backs coach for the past two seasons, but his responsibilities have expanded beyond the backfield, working with the offensive line when position coach Adrian Klemm was suspended for the first two games of the season.

The Bruins are also set to hire USC assistant Marques Tuiasosopo to replace former quarterbacks coach Taylor Mazzone, expected to follow his father to College State. Tuiasosopo was UCLA’s Y-receivers coach in 2012, but left to join Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Washington. He was the interim coach during the Huskies’ 31-16 win over BYU in the 2013 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl before following Sarkisian to USC.

UPDATE: Rip Scherer is also set to become UCLA’s tight ends coach, according to FOX Sports. The 63-year-old has served as a Bruin associate athletic director for the past two years, but has decades of coaching experience in both the NFL and college.