WATCH: Chip Kelly on South Alabama, UCLA's Status as 'Transfer U'

Kelly said it was a mistake when the Bruins' social media accounts attempted to give the program the moniker on Monday.

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke to reporters ahead of Wednesday morning's practice session. Kelly talked about the targeting call against safety Kenny Churchwell on Saturday, what he expects to see from South Alabama's offense, the tweet that labeled the Bruins as "Transfer U," the availability of some veteran starters and the growth of linebacker Shea Pitts.

Appeal the Churchwell targeting?

Yeah, we sent it in. You send them in every week, but it did not – they upheld it, so he'll sit out the first half.

What did you see looking back at that play?

I didn't – I couldn't know.

South Alabama quality wins, Sun Belt making noise – scouting report?

Well-coached team. Major Applewhite's the offensive coordinator, does a really good job. Quarterback Carter Bradley is really efficient in terms of what they do. They're gonna spread you out, they get the ball, they've got two outstanding wide receivers, their outside guys are really good – Wayne and Lacy. And then they have a tough and physical running game in Ram and Avery. So they kinda spread you out to run it a little bit, and if you get too spread out, they're gonna hurt you in the run game, but if you constrict too much in the run game, they're gonna hurt you cause they've got weapons out wide. So really solid team on the offensive side of the ball, been really efficient in their first two games, offensively, this year in their win over Nicholls and their win over Central Michigan. Central Michigan went in and scored 44 on Oklahoma State in the opening week and I thought, defensively, these guys did a really good job of shutting them down. They're multiple on the defensive side of the ball, their head coach is a defensive coach, came from Indiana as a defensive coordinator. Very multiple, lot of different looks, lot of different blitzes, lot of dropping different guys into coverage, so they try to confuse you from an offensive standpoint going against them. You gotta know who's coming, who the rushers are, who the droppers are, cause that can affect you in terms of trying to be efficient in your passing game. So a really well-coached team, and we expect a really good game on Saturday.

The way Bowling Green defended you prepare you for South Alabama's defense?

Nah, this – they're not, they're not, they're not. I mean, Bowling Green's more of a 3-4 team, this is a 4-2-5 team, but there are some principles, I think. But I think the schemes are different.

Coaching up a hard-hitter like Churchwell after a call like that?

No, I mean, it was a bang bang play. You know, it's tough on some angles, it doesn't look like there's contact on other angles. There are some times, the receiver's getting low, he's hitting in the right spot but I think Kenny's been really good. He's played a lot of football for us, he's done a really nice job. Sometimes those plays occur. We always coach tackling every day in training and we don't coach tackling with the head, we coach tackling with the shoulder leverage tackle. So our fundamentals and what we practice, we continue to do the fundamentals at every practice, we've just got to weather to storm while Kenny's out in the first half.

Sign off on 'Transfer U' tweet?

Nah. I did not, that was a mistake. I was told that’s not what we’re about, so we’re always going to build it just like we talked about in the preseason with the high school kids and then you’re going to supplement it with the portal. I think what their point is, we’ve been very efficient with our portal. I think the kids we bring in here play and that’s a credit to how we do that. We’ve always approached it like it’s free agency in the National Football League, so how can they contribute to the program? There’s a ton of guys that go in the portal and I think that’s the M.O. for probably most teams in college football, I think 48% of the quarterbacks in the FCS are transfers and in our conference there’s only two quarterbacks that were recruited as high school kids coming out and that’s Dorian and Tanner McKee at Stanford, the rest of them, the other 10 teams have transfers on their team, so that’s kind of the reality of it, but that’s, no, that shouldn’t have gone up.

Hear from the administration?

No, that was a mistake that the head coach saw and when I saw it, I said, ‘That’s a mistake.’ I didn't hear from anybody.

It's still up, have you asked them to delete it?

I don’t know how to, I’ll take care of that when I go back, I’ll find that part out. it’s already out there, so I don’t know what deleting it does.

So that it's not out there in perpetuity?

Do people go back and look at it afterward? I’m not in that world, so. If you want it off, I’ll take it off, Ben.

OK, appreciate that

OK. 

Kain Medrano still out?

He's unavailable today.

Ezeike back in full go?

Yep.

How has Shea looked at inside linebacker so far?

Shea's done a nice job, cause he plays both our SAM and our WILL for us, so he plays in the box when he's playing the WILL, he plays a little bit outside when our SAM linebacker gets extended by formation. So he's adapted really well, was a striker for us last year, moved up to linebacker when McGovern got here and coach Norton got here. I think he's done a really good job because he's got versatility, so he's provided a lot of versatility for us.

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