LOS ANGELES -- After Tee Martin was named USC’s offensive coordinator in mid-December, Marques Tuiasosopo was optimistic about what it would be like continuing to work with his former NFL teammate on the Trojans' staff.

Tuiasosopo was set to remain as the team’s quarterback coach and was already looking forward to the looming quarterback competition between Max Brown and Sam Darnold.

"I was in a good place," he said.

It was clear newly appointed coach Clay Helton wanted Tuiasosopo on staff -- he fired four assistant coaches immediately following the Pac-12 title game -- but it also became apparent Tuiasosopo wasn’t on course for additional responsibilities. On Jan. 4, USC announced Helton hired his brother, Tyson Helton, to serve as the Trojans’ running backs coach and passing-game coordinator. Tyson was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Western Kentucky the previous season, and as the Trojans' offense was set for a makeover, his ideas were going to carry a lot of weight.

For Tuiasosopo, the writing was on the wall. About week a later, he was off to UCLA to join Jim Mora’s staff as the quarterbacks coach and passing-game coordinator.

"You’re just going along and things come up," Tuiasosopo said. "It was a better opportunity for me to keep learning and get some more responsibility."

Tuiasosopo was already familiar with Mora and much of the staff after coaching at UCLA in 2011 and 2012. That was part of the draw, he said, and in addition to the added responsibilities, he was intrigued by the opportunity to coach talented sophomore Josh Rosen.

Mora knew he needed a strong voice in the quarterbacks room who could challenge Rosen and lean heavily on his own personal experience. Tuiasosopo, who was a standout quarterback at Washington before an eight-year NFL career, made a lot of sense.

"Played the game and the success he’s had coaching the game, being able to transfer that knowledge over to our players," Mora said. "He’s a great communicator; has a lot of energy and he’s an expert."

The returns coming out of spring practice indicate Tuiasosopo's hiring had an immediate positive impact.

"We have really good chemistry," Rosen said. "We both have strong personalities. We work really well together. The way I learn is I question the hell out of things until it makes sense to me, and I've learned more this spring than I have in a while."

For Rosen, the fact that Tuiasosopo spent so much time in the NFL despite not necessarily having the ideal physical tools to last at that level was telling. It established a level of credibility that he immediately respected. Even so, Rosen isn’t shy about engaging in healthy debate.

"I don’t think you can think meeting rooms can be one-sided, because you really need to be able to understand it," he said. "And he’ll put me up and I’ll teach it, because the best way to understand something yourself is to prove that you can actually teach someone else. It works really well."

The first thing Tuiasosopo mentioned when asked about working with Rosen was his intelligence.

"He’s really bright. He’s smart and he wants to get better," Tuiasosopo said. "As a coach, you don’t want to be pulling that out of him. You want guys who have a desire to be great, and he has that."

Under new offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu, UCLA made a point to become a more physical offense during the spring. That meant the addition of tight ends and fullbacks, which led to new, varying pass concepts. Stitching those concepts together into a more concrete plan has fallen on Tuiasosopo -- "That’s what I’ve been waiting for," he said -- and is something he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do at USC.