UCLA Football: Chip Kelly Discusses All Things Recruiting in Recent Media Availability

Kelly shares updates on the search for a new defensive coordinator, how he plans on leveraging the transfer portal, and if he thinks any 2024 recruits will play as freshmen.

During this year's early signing period, UCLA received just 10 commits, four of which plan on enrolling at UCLA next month. According to Rivals, their class is currently ranked 10th in the Pac 12 and 66th in the country. 

Worth noting is UCLA's above-average academic standards for admission, as well as their favoring of building their team via the transfer portal as of late. Chip Kelly had a media availability this week to recap what he thought about his program's recruitment as the early signing period ends. 

We've collected some notable quotes from Kelly regarding how he views his 2024 recruiting class as it stands, how he looks at the transfer portal, and more. Note that some sentences of Kelly's statements have been removed for brevity. The whole press conference will be hyperlinked at the end of this article. 

"We feel really good about the ten guys we have... Cameron Jones is a local kid, running back from St. John Bosco... He's a big strong physical running back you know, and kind of the mold that we like here. Big, tough, downhill football player... Took three really good offensive linemen... we had a chance to see them personally, you know, workout. We feel really good about them."

Kelly views the offensive lineman he signed as versatile and athletic for their size, and referred to all of them as "tackle bodies". He mentioned that he tries to recruit offensive linemen who have the physical frame of an offensive tackle and fill the rest of his offensive line out from there, placing an emphasis on length. Kelly also spoke highly of the two quarterbacks that signed this week, Texas product Karson Gordon and Henry Hasselbeck out of Massachusetts.

"Karson is the State of Texas triple jump champion. I think he's gone over 52 plus feet in the triple jump which I think is a state record. So he's a tremendous athlete but a really sharp kid at a high school where they really do a lot of elite things, and do a lot that's put on the quarterback's plate. And then we added Henry Hasselbeck, who was the Gatorade player of the year out of the state of Massachusetts... Another really, really good athlete. Was originally committed to Maryland for lacrosse."

Kelly then on to add that they have plans to supplement this group with the transfer portal. Kelly was asked about if their recruiting approach will change as they head into their first year in the Big 10 conference. 

"I think you're always just trying to improve your team, and that's the, what the goal is all the time, and are you bringing in players that can compliment what you already have in your program and are you building. And I think this group of guys helps us do that. But um, you know, I also don't think the Big 10 is what people thought the Big 10 used to be. You know, in the old days it was I-formation downhill football. There aren't many teams that do that now. I think maybe with the exception of maybe Michigan and Iowa. There's a lot of spread teams in the Big 10, and they're still physical when they play spread but I don't think it's the same thing people thought maybe 10 or 15 years ago."

Kelly was then asked if he thinks any of these recruits who signed on early signing day will make an impact on the team in their first year as a Bruin.

"I think the kids who enroll early obviously have a better chance of playing in the fall just because they get an opportunity to go through winter program with our football performance people. They also get a chance to go through the spring with coaches meetings and all those other things."

Those players who will be enrolling early are wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, linebacker Isaiah Patterson, cornerback Jamir Benjamin, and cornerback Kristian Dunbar-Hawkins. 

One of the biggest question marks for the Bruins heading into 2024 is filling the gaps along the defensive line, specifically at the edge position. Kelly suggested he plans on attacking that gap by leveraging the transfer portal, adding that he is doing that (looking for a defensive lineman) "as we speak". 

Kelly added that he is not focused on filling the coaching vacancies his team now has, the most notable being the loss of their defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn to USC for the same role. Rather, his focus has been the LA Bowl. "We're going to be quick, but not hurry", said Kelly in reference to his impending coaching search.

You can watch the press conference on the UCLA Athletics YouTube channel.