UCLA Football: Release of Week 1 Depth Chart Offers Some Surprises

Is Chip Kelly employing a bit of gamesmanship here ahead of Saturday's opener?

With the season opener just a few days away, UCLA Football gave us some insight into how the rotations may shake out for beginning of this season. 

The Week 1 depth chart versus Coastal Carolina was released on Tuesday. While some of the first-string choices were 'no-brainers', there were a few selections which raised more than a few eyebrows: 

Here is the #UCLA depth chart for week one against Coastal Carolina. pic.twitter.com/1wq4NtSzya

— Mike Regalado 🏀🏈🎧 (@MikeRegaladoLA) August 29, 2023

As has been chronicled in recent hours, the QB1 listed is Ethan Garbers -- though the 'OR" denotation featuring both Dante Moore and Collin Schlee is present (which was expected). Offensively, there's no surprise in seeing J. Michael Sturdivant and Kyle Ford as starting receivers. The TE spot -- which was also a competition between three participants (Carsen Ryan, Moliki Matavao, Hudson Habermehl) -- also shows the 'OR' designation (meaning all three should play a rather even amount). 

Defensively, the OLB spots (also known as the defensive end spots in this scheme) feature returning starters in Preseason All-American Laiatu Latu and Gabriel Murphy. Both starting defensive tackles from a year ago (Jay Toia, Gary Smith) are back in the middle of the front four. Hawaii transfer Darius Muasau has also returned with his spot as the team's starting MLB. 

While those are more of the known quantities, a few of the depth chart placements were curious. 

Before we delve into the depth chart any further, one generalization must be made. Chip Kelly is notorious for not taking Week 1 depth charts very seriously. Some of this is probably done to mess with the media, while the other aspect involves gamesmanship as it pertains to the opponent. As such, we should probably take a few of these depth chart decisions with a grain of salt. 

The offensive line offers the most intrigue here. Duke Clemens was always going to be starting at center. He's one of the better interior linemen in the Pac-12. It was surprising -- however -- to see both Khadere Kounta and Jake Wiley listed as backups. 

Transfers from Old Dominion and Colorado, respectively, each have multiple years of starting experience on the collegiate level. Kounta is a true left tackle prospect, and Wiley can flip between both guard and tackle. From all accounts, both have NFL potential. 

IT’S GAME WEEK! #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/ZIrcwrz3sp

— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) August 28, 2023

As such, it's a bit strange to see them behind two career backups in Josh Carlin and Bruno Fina. Both Fina and Carlin are said to have had good camps. With that said, we wonder if this is a move to try and mess with Coastal Carolina -- since neither Fina nor Carlin have a ton of game film to assess/study. 

One other interesting area of note is the secondary. Jordan Anderson was a multi-time All-League performer in the MAC with Bowling Green. He was projected to come in and be a thumper at safety right away. Yet, he's listed behind Kenny Churchwell III. 

While there's plenty of intrigue over this depth chart, we really won't know what to expect until the Bruins are in action Saturday evening.