WATCH: Chip Kelly Talks Awarded Scholarships, UCLA’s New Defense

Alex Johnson, Josiah Norwood and Nicholas Barr-Mira are among those who graduated from walk-on status before the Bowling Green game.

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke to reporters ahead of Wednesday morning's practice session. Kelly talked about how the defense has adjusted to Bill McGovern’s system, the emergence of linebacker JonJon Vaughns, Alex Johnson earning Nick Pasquale’s No. 36, the six walk-ons who earned scholarships and the Bruins’ connection with Oaks Christian (CA).

McGovern in the box or on the field?

Billy will be in the box.

Impressions of what he's teaching and how he's been able to implement his defense?

I think all of those guys—and I look at the defense collectively, we’ve got a couple of new faces with Ikaika and Chad and Ken and Billy to go along with Brian, who was here before—I think they’ve meshed really well as a group, I think they’ve done a really good job of presenting a package to our defense that I think our defense that I think our kids up front at the second level and at the secondary understand, they’ve got a pretty good grasp of what we’re doing and I think they have been really conscious of what they put in, making sure we understand it and grasp it before we move on to the next step, there’s building blocks in terms of how we’re doing things, but I’ve been really impressed with how our defense has played in the spring and then through preseason camp and now we get a chance to get tested on Saturday in our first real test against another team, but I’ve been impressed with all those guys.

Alex Johnson got No. 36?

He did. Obviously, it’s a really cool tradition here honoring one of the former great walk-ons here and we just continued that tradition when we took over here. I had heard about Nick and we have Danny Fields and Jerry Neuheisel on our staff, who had a chance to play with Nick, and I thought it was a great idea to do, we’ve had some great kids, you know it was really cool that Ethan had a chance to present it to him even though he was in camp with the Colts, a chance to talk about it and make sure everybody understands what that award is about, that’s Alex—he’s given everything to this program, he’s graduated in four years, he’s in grad school now, plays a significant amount of snaps for us on special teams and plays in our sub packages on defense and has done a great job. I know he’ll tell you it’s an honor to wear it but there was no more fitting guy to be that guy than Alex.

Come with a scholarship?

It’s not tied to that, no.

Transition with new defensive coaches in installation and learning from last year?

It hasn’t been a big difference at all. I think they did a really good job of putting together a package—there’s a lot of carryover from what we did before, especially terminology-wise, there may be tweak here and there, we may have called it this and the will linebacker plays it a little differently from a technique standpoint, but I think all those guys blended really, really well, the fact that Brian was here and understood what we did in the past and I think whenever you are where we were at that point and time, we want to be conscious not to baby out with the bath water. You know, let’s keep the things we’ve done really well on and let’s improve on the things we need to get better at and I think that’s what those guys have done.

JonJon the guy at Will linebacker?

There’s a bunch of guys playing there—JonJon’s playing there, CBS is playing there, Kain is playing there, so you’ll see a lot of guys rotating through there and we’re going to have to play a lot of guys on Saturday, you know, weather will dictate that but that had been our plan all along.

JonJon at top of two-deep despite missing spring?

JonJon’s a football player and it’s funny I was with John Savage a few nights ago, there was a function here and it was the same thing, he’s just got a great football mind, he’s got a great athletic mind and he picks things up very, very quickly. It really didn’t seem like you’re two days into fall practice, preseason camp, it’s not like this kid wasn’t here for the entire spring, it’s just, he kind of picked up where he left off last December and hasn’t missed a beat. Really excited with where he is, this will be Year 3 with him, you know he transitioned from being a safety in high school and was a safety here and has moved into the linebacker spot and done a nice job for us, so we’re hoping he takes another step this fall.

Baseball tendencies that carry over?

He’s great on a 3-and-2 count. One thing I do notice about all baseball players and they have a great ability – and it’s a great question – they can shake things off a lot easier than maybe a football player because they have so many opportunities and success in baseball is being three for 10. You know, you’re hitting .300 and that’s a good day and if you’re three for 10 in football then you’re probably not going to be on the field, but I think his ability to move on to the next play is a really important thing and I think all great competitors know how to respond—you know, once an event happens learn from what that event was but then move on to the next event and I think he’s done a really good job of that. That’s why, it’s to him, to some guys—although he wasn’t here for the spring—that’s a really big deal; to JonJon it’s not a big deal, he’s been used to playing sports his entire life—in the fall he does this and in the spring he does this and in the fall he transitions back, so where we may be concerned as coaches because this is just our world in football of, you know, he wasn’t here in the spring and he came in here and it wasn’t a big deal to him, he didn’t act like it was a big deal and he picked up right away, so I think his approach to things and maybe it’s more of a baseball player mindset is, you’ve just got to go on to the next play or the next at-bat or the next swing has really helped him transition to what we’re doing now.

JonJon in the playbook during baseball?

I don't know, that's a good question for him. I'm not sure if he was or wasn't, but I know he knows it now and he's done a really nice job this camp, so.

Kaz Allen and Kam Brown bigger roles this year?

Yeah, I mean obviously with Kaz, you've got a guy who's got outstanding speed, and I think we've known that since he's come in here and we tried to put him in different situations. He's done a great job for us kick returning and he's really done a good job as we transitioned him out to wideout of being able to stretch the defense and get behind people. And we've hit a couple balls over the top to him – Hawaii in the opener a year ago, head a big one against USC in that game. So I think his ability to kinda stretch the defense is a really big deal for us, but we also have – he can do some other things too. So we're using him in the slot a little bit more this year. He didn't play much slot last year cause we had Kyle. With Kyle gone to Tennessee, to the Titans, kinda opened up a spot for him there and he's handled that, really moved into that role in the springtime and I think really did a really nice job with it, so looking forward to him there. And then Kam, Kam, the more reps you get, the more seasoned you get, so the better he is. So we're expecting big things out of Kam also.

Pedersen and Ryan listed as running backs?

Yeah, that's what they're playing right now.

How did that come about?

Well, we have a lot of depth at tight end, so we're trying to get those guys on the field doing some different things. They're bigger – they're not the taller, longer bodies like a Hudson or a Zeke, but they handled that transition very well.

At their request?

No, that's our football request, we want to get them on the field, so just trying to maximize their skillset.

Walk-ons earning scholarships announced already or before Saturday?

Yeah, it's been announced to them. So Nick Barr-Mira, Jack Landherr, Alex Johnson, Josiah Norwood, Carson Schwesinger and Dovid Magna all went on scholarship. They all earned it cause they're all playing for us now, playing significant roles for us. So those six guys have earned scholarships.

Announced in a full team meeting or privately?

Yeah, it was announced in the team meeting the other night.

Get you up to 85?

We're in the low 80s right now.

Carson's from Oaks Christian, Zach went there too...

Bo Calvert went there, Shea Pitts went there, we've got a lot of Oaks guys.

What does Oaks Christian do to prepare those guys? What kind of guys come from that school?

Um, I think kids that are prepared both academically and athletically. You know, I think it's a great school academically, so a kid who's a graduate of there – obviously, this is a really good school, academically, can handle the course load. Shea is a great example, Shea's graduated from here in three years with an undergrad degree in Political Science. He's graduated, already has a master's degree in our school of education, and now he's working on a second master's degree in legal studies. So he's kinda a prime example of what an Oaks kid is like, but whether it's Bo or Shea or Zach or Carson, they're dialed into football, they want to be successful both athletically and academically. And Charlie's done a really good job with that program over there. So whenever we get a – we know we're getting a well-coached kid when he comes from that program, but we also know we're getting a kid that's really solid when it comes to the academic side of things cause of what a great job they've been preparing the kids for.

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