LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chris Shula is the son of a former NFL head coach and the grandson of the winningest coach in league history.
For the past nine seasons, he has been an assistant coach to Sean McVay, the youngest head coach in the Super Bowl era, the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl — and his best friend.
Shula is about to get his own first ride on the NFL's head coaching interview carousel, and it's tough to imagine somebody better prepared for the experience.
That's why Shula and the Los Angeles Rams (12-5) aren't worried about distractions as their defensive coordinator prepares his players to face the Carolina Panthers (8-9) on Saturday in the wild-card round.
Whether he lands a job or not this winter, Shula is determined to make the most of another winning season at McVay's side first — and he's got plenty of work to do.
“I mean, if the right spot and the right context, if the right situation presents itself, when that time comes, then we’ll decide that,” Shula said Wednesday. “I have a routine that I do every single week to be ready to play games, and this week I’m going to be locked in on that routine. We’re playing an opponent that’s very capable of beating us.”
Shula is focused on adjusting a defense that has regressed down the stretch after being one of the league's most effective units for much of the season.
While many factors have played a role, the injury absence of safety Quentin Lake since Week 11 has forced Shula to play replacements who are less versatile in coverage and less effective in run prevention.
Lake is expected to return against Carolina, but the Rams have allowed 168 points (28.0 per game) while going 3-3 in their past six games, knocking them out of the NFC's No. 1 overall seed.
The skid interrupted a yearlong stretch of surprisingly impressive play by Shula's unit, which has been completely rebuilt from the Super Bowl-winning defense led by Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey in 2021. The only defensive players remaining from that championship team are cornerback Darious Williams, who left for two years before returning, and special teams-focused linebacker Troy Reeder.
The Rams have just one first-round pick of their own on their defensive roster — Jared Verse, last season’s AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Los Angeles’ defensive payroll was the smallest in the league this season.
That success turned heads across the league and inspired the perception that Shula is the next big branch in McVay’s enviable coaching tree, which includes six assistants who have become full-time NFL head coaches.
McVay has repeatedly said this season that Shula could be ready for the next step if it presents itself.
“Based on some of the things that I’ve heard, I would imagine that Chris will get a couple of requests” for interviews, McVay said Tuesday. “I’d be very surprised if that doesn’t happen.”
Assistants who are coaching in the wild-card round can’t start interviewing for new jobs until next week.
Shula, who turns 40 next month, might not be thinking about preparing for interviews this week, but that’s because he’s already done the work.
Shula followed the example set by previous assistants in McVay’s coaching tree by studying and preparing for the head coaching interview process during the summer and again briefly on the Rams’ bye week, making sure he knows what to say when the time comes.
“It’s more of the overarching, philosophical stuff,” Shula said. “‘Who would you want with you?’ Some of the philosophies on the offensive, defensive side. Some of the culture things. Some of the big-picture stuff.”
Shula has been the Rams’ defensive coordinator for the past two seasons after serving as a defensive position coach since he arrived in 2017 with McVay, his closest friend since they became roommates during their freshman year on the Miami of Ohio football team in 2004.
They’re both descended from NFL royalty: Shula is the grandson of Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula and the son of former Bengals coach Dave Shula, while McVay is the grandson of 49ers executive and Giants coach John McVay.
They both acknowledge the role played by their heritage in their coaching success, but they made their way into the NFL separately. When McVay got the Rams’ top job, Shula immediately joined the staff — and even lived in McVay’s new house in Encino for a year.
Both have families now, and they’ve enjoyed the unusual stability granted by McVay’s success. Staying in one city for a decade is a rarity for any coach, but particularly for an assistant such as Shula.
So when the time comes to decide his next step, Shula won't rush out the door.
“I think that’s the goal of any coach that wants to be in this league," Shula said several weeks ago. “That doesn’t mean you’re just going to walk away for any opportunity. I love it here, and my family loves it here. We’ve been here nine, 10 years, coaching with my best friend. We obviously have a great group of players and a great staff. So for the right opportunity, we’ll see.”
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FILE - Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula looks on during an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Dec. 7, 2025, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Samantha Chow, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Friday, killing at least four people in the capital. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a powerful, new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Europe’s leaders condemned the attack as “escalatory and unacceptable,” and the European Union's top foreign policy envoy said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reply to diplomacy was “more missiles and destruction.”
The attack also coincides with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow, which has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its maximalist demands on Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 25 wounded in Kyiv as apartment buildings were struck overnight.
Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Four doctors and one police officer were injured while responding to the attacks, authorities said.
About half of snowy Kyiv’s apartment buildings — nearly 6,000 — were left without heat amid daytime temperatures of about minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit), Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Water supplies also were disrupted.
Municipal services restored power and heat to public facilities, including hospitals and maternity wards, using portable boiler units, he said
The attack damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who noted that Qatar has played a key role in mediating the exchange of prisoners of war.
He called for a “clear response” from the international community, particularly from the U.S., which he said Russia takes seriously.
Ukraine’s Security Service said it identified debris from the Oreshnik missile in the Lviv region in the country's west. It was fired from Russia’s Kapustin Yar test range near the Caspian Sea in southwestern Russia and targeted civilian infrastructure, investigators said.
“I heard a loud, shocking explosion, and it’s normal at this time of the war to hear these things here," said Lviv resident Kristofer Chokhovich, who said he was an American. "I just want everyone in the world to know that Ukraine is strong and we don’t care how many missiles you send.”
Another resident, Ulyana Fedun, described the attack as “very unpleasant” but not scary because “we’ve been living in this state for four years.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow claimed was a Ukrainian drone strike on one of Putin’s residences last month. Both Trump and Ukraine rejected the Russian claim.
Moscow didn’t say where the Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted an underground natural gas storage facility in the Lviv region. Western military aid flows to Ukraine from a supply hub in Poland just across the border.
Putin has previously said the Oreshnik streaks to its target at Mach 10, “like a meteorite,” and is immune to any missile defense system. Several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack, according to Putin, who has warned the West that Russia could use it against allies of Kyiv that allow it to strike inside Russia with longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian intelligence says the missile has six warheads, each carrying six submunitions.
Russia first used the Oreshnik missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Analysts say it gives Russia a new element of psychological warfare, unnerving Ukrainians and intimidating Western countries that aid Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.
“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X.
Ukraine’s request for an emergency meeting of the Security Council has been conveyed to the council, and six of the 15 members have called for a meeting on Monday, but no date has been set yet, a U.N. diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private.
Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Vatican, urged the international community to keep pushing for peace and end the suffering in Ukraine.
“Faced with this tragic situation, the Holy See strongly reiterates the pressing need for an immediate ceasefire, and for dialogue motivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace,” the pontiff told ambassadors to the Vatican from around the world.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said they spoke about the attack and deemed it “escalatory and unacceptable.”
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the Oreshnik launch was “meant as a warning to Europe and to the U.S.”
“Putin doesn’t want peace, Russia’s reply to diplomacy is more missiles and destruction,” Kallas wrote on social media.
Several districts in Kyiv were hit in the overnight attack, according to Tkachenko, the city's military administration chief. In the Desnyanskyi district, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multistory building and the first two floors of another residential building were damaged.
In the Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.
Dmytro Karpenko's windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor's house was burning, he rushed to help him.
“What Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying," the 45-year old said.
A previous version of this story corrected the style on Andriy Sadoviy to Andrii Sadovyi.
Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The body of a paramedic lies on the ground in the snow outside a residential building damaged by a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building is damaged after a Russian air strike during a heavy snow storm in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and British Defense Secretary John Healey talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
A rescue worker tries to put out a fire at a residential building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The dead body of a paramedic lies on the ground in front of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building burns after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescue workers put out a fire at a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescue workers put out a fire at a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A residential building burns after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
