WATCH: Chip Kelly on Stars' Statuses, UCLA Players' Debuts in Week 2

Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet were ruled unavailable against Alabama State, but returned to practice Monday.

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke with the media ahead of Monday morning's practice session. Kelly talked about quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and running back Zach Charbonnet's health, what he discovered breaking down the film of Saturday's win over Alabama State, what it meant to get 88 players out on the field against the Hornets, how he tells Gabriel and Grayson Murphy apart and the benefits of having dual-sport athletes like linebacker JonJon Vaughns and running back Christian Grubb.

Are Dorian and Zach going to practice today?

Yes.

Are they...

They are available.

Takeaways from watching film?

We got a lot of guys in, I think we had 88 players played on Saturday. So we talk about all the time, there's a difference between practice and a game, so there's an opportunity for guys to get quality game reps. We got it on film, so we had a really good film session this morning with all those guys, just getting a chance to show them actually game footage of them playing in a college football game. So we were excited about that. There's still obviously things in all three phases that have to be fixed and addressed, and that's what kind of every Monday is about. We do an after action and kinda what we did well and what do we gotta continue to work on, and then we jump right into our next opponent, South Alabama. So I was pleased with what we did, but there's still a lot of things we can get better at. The O-line's getting better as a group, playing together, the left side's new with Nio and Raiqwon out there and those guys are starting to get a little more familiar with each other. Jonny played really well for us at right guard, Duke did a really good job at center, Garrett's doing a really nice job for us. It's just a combination of working your combinations and getting guys to get a really good understanding of how they work together as a group so we'll continue to grow. So we're where we want to be after two, you want to be 2-0 going into the third game. Now it's – this will be the best opponent we've played to date, it's a really good football team coming in here. They're 2-0 themselves, they had a big win over Central Michigan and really did a really good job against Central Michigan last Saturday. So we're very aware of what South Alabama's bringing in here on Saturday.

Latu have to get cleared before you said you wanted him? Or take his commitment before he was cleared medically?

We sent all his stuff to the medical staff when he went into the portal, and then got confirmation from our medical staff in terms of where he was. And obviously, we're not gonna recruit a kid that can't play, so I think our medical staff felt good about what they got from him, and then they monitored him while he was here.

Spine-tingling story when you see a guy who thought his career was over come in and contribute?

Yeah, I mean, it was awesome for him, and if you've seen how hard and understand how hard he's worked to get back, it was refreshing. He's a great young man, we got to know him really well in the recruiting process the first time, and then he opted to go to Washington the first time. But then I think his relationship with Ikaika was huge, and the fact that we got him the second time – I loved him the first time we recruited him, but for him to get another opportunity, I think he really counts his blessings. And then to come up with two sacks and a forced fumble in his second college game back was a pretty big deal. So really, really happy for Latu. But like anything in this game, you get it because you work for it and you deserve it, and he deserved what has happened to him and hopefully, he'll continue to grow from here.

Guys who had their first in-game experience?

Yeah, that's – I mean, it's not very often you can come in on a Sunday and have to grade 88 guys, in terms of giving them an opportunity to play. A lot of those guys have been key contributors to us from a scout team standpoint, but for them to get the reward of being able to go out and play in the Rose Bowl is pretty cool. And to see the smiles on some of their faces and – we have a backup kicker, Ari Libenson, who's filled in as a scout team wide receiver and does an unbelievable job, he gives us great effort and he got a couple snaps at wide receiver on Saturday and it was awesome to see the joy in his face. Everything that he's done out here has contributed to the success of this football team that he actually gets to get in a college football game in the Rose Bowl and play was a pretty cool experience. So that was awesome for him, and there's so many other ones. Christian Grubb, coming back off a season-ending injury a year ago, to come back and contribute, show some flashes in there that you hope you can build upon and continue to see Christian grow. But there's a bunch of guys that – Colson, who missed a year ago with a foot, got back, got a chance to play. He's been moved to a new position, but for him to get some opportunities there. And then to see some of the true freshmen get an opportunity to get to play in a game is pretty special.

Carry over effect in practice for those guys?

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, that's what you hope for, that those guys understand that their hard work gets rewarded and really how your substitution pattern work gets rewarded. When you take your starters out, who's the next group to go in? And then we were fortunate after the next group went in that we could get to another group of people there. But you're really fighting every day for your spot and an opportunity if it does come around, you know, can you play? And some of the guys, isn't because you play, not because of the score of the game, but because of injury. I know two years ago, during COVID, when we're playing an overtime game against Stanford and Kobey Fitzgerald's out there at inside linebacker for us because we had gotten pretty beaten up at depth at inside linebacker. But over the course of the season, we watched him as a scout squad player continuing to make plays and do things so that we felt comfortable enough to put him in a game in a critical situation because of what he did here on the practice field. But I think that's a good point, those guys understanding that practice time really reflects on playing time and that your playing time is earned when come out here. And the fact that we had 88 guys that got a chance to play on Saturday, I think that just gives them a little bit of a shot that 'Hey, let's continue to grow on this thing and see if we can get more opportunities when our time comes on Saturday.'

Alabama State's RPOs gave you some trouble, see that on film?

Yeah, I mean, again, I thought we were there in coverage, I thought their quarterback did an outstanding job. It wasn't like there was a guy just running clean down the field, it wasn't the dropback game. It was most of their completions came off their RPO plays. I think it was really good ball placement, I think we could do some things leverage-wise with our underneath players to try to take some things away, but again, I just saw really good execution on their part.

Grubb does track, JonJon does baseball – any other dual-sport guys?

Not currently, that I know. I know Kaz was a track kid earlier in his career, a couple of those guys have come back and forth, but those are the only guys who are now.

Encourage the dual-sport thing?

Yeah, as long as they have the ability to do it and it doesn't interfere with their academic progress, then we have no issue. So in the beginning, we recruited both JonJon and Christian as dual-sport athletes, and then the other sports, based on (inaudible).

See the benefits in it?

I've always seen the benefits in it. Track is a very easy one – if they go to track practice, the become more explosive and faster, and that's always beneficial to being a football player. But I also – you know, our job is to help develop young men, and if developing someone like JonJon, what's his career? Is he a professional baseball player? Is he a professional football player? I'm not gonna make that decision for him, or tell him he has to make that decision as a 17, 18-year-old kid coming out of high school. So that's up to him, but if he's good enough to play on our baseball team and participate – and he is – then more power to him. And there's been a few in the past, it's hard. I chat with those guys, it's hard for you academically, with the course work. You're really in-season year-round, and that's the difference. We have an offseason in football. If you're a football-baseball player, you don't really have an offseason. The offseason for baseball's right now, but JonJon's playing football. So it's a credit to him, but it's also his athletic ability and his mindset in terms of wanting to be successful at both.

How do you tell the Murphy twins apart when they aren't wearing their jersey numbers?

Gabe and Grayson?

Yeah

Yeah, I was confused by your question, cause they're usually wearing their jerseys.

In a meeting room?

They usually wear their jerseys in the meeting rooms, though, because we have – our underneath practices jerseys have their numbers on them too, so that's a cheat deal that you can do a little bit.

Walking into the facility?

Murph. Murph works good. I think you can tell – yeah, one of their hair's a little different bit different when you look at them. But I'm a big 'Muprh" guy. And very rarely are they apart. I've never seen – you hear about identical twins, where there's one, there's the other, and those guys are – there's a bond that's pretty unique with those kids, they're pretty special.

Is that why you play them together a lot?

No, we play them together cause they're earned that, they're both really, really good football players. And so I think as we continue to grow here as a group, you'll see more of them because of what they can do.

Logan taking punt returns?

He's a sure-handed kid, he just wasn't available in game one. He's a guy that's been working out as a punt returner since we got him here, really kinda backed up Kyle from that standpoint. He does a good job back there, he's athletic enough to make people miss. He probably wants the one back that he caught on the 5, we gotta put our feet on the 10-yard line and not back up, but it was good that we got an opportunity to get another guy back there and get some quality returns cause you can't have enough people back there. But the biggest thing is you feel really confident when he's back there that he's gonna catch the football and not let it bounce around and give you those situations where the ball bounces on the 18 and rolls down inside the 5. He's gonna make sure he fields every catch cause he's really sure-handed. So wasn't available in game one, it was good that he was available in game two.

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