WATCH: Chip Kelly Talks UCLA-Colorado, Adding Transfers From Duke

The Bruins are going up against a defense that is allowing 348 rushing yards per game, but Kelly still praised the veterans in the Buffaloes' front seven.

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke with the media ahead of his team's Wednesday morning practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Kelly talked about the what Colorado has been able to do well this season despite starting 0-3, the effectiveness of the Bruins' cornerbacks, adding players from football families, the transfer portal pipeline from Duke and the thinned-out defensive line rotation.

Looking at the film, what are some of the things Colorado has done well?

They’ve got a good defensive front, a lot of veteran experience there. Their middle linebacker, Perry, is a really, really good player—a tough, hardnosed player, kind of the center point of what they do defensively. It’s unique, they’ve played three exactly different teams—you know, you’ve got to go play the option against Air Force in Game 2 and that’s a totally kind of a game-changer for you. They’ve got a decent scheme from a run standpoint and the RPOs off of it, I think they’ve just got to get settled at the quarterback spot because in the Minnesota game they played all three, so they played Lewis and Shrout and McNown so I think if they can get the quarterback position straightened out, it’s a good scheme both offensively and defensively.

So do you prepare for all three quarterbacks?

You have to because they’ve played all three and they played all three in the last game, so that’s kind of just part of the process—you know, Lewis is a little bit more of a runner of the three of them, so we just have to be aware and I think you may get multiple quarterbacks in the game. We’ve got to be aware of who’s in the game, what their strengths and weaknesses are and how is the playcalling kind of, does it change depending on who the quarterback is.

Different playcalling with each quarterback?

You couldn’t tell, McNown went in for the last four minutes of the game—a young kid, accurate, lefty, looks like he’s got a pretty good grasp of what they’re doing offensively but it was late and Minnesota was just running the clock out, but that’s what you’ve got to be aware of, kind of what you think. You know, we know out of the three that Lewis is more of the runner out of the three, so.

What have you seen out of your cornerbacks through three games?

I think they’ve competed really well out there, you know, they’re tall and long. I think they’ve done a nice job of matching up with wideouts when we were in man coverage—you know, we don’t play man every snap but I think they do a good job in press because they’re tall and long and they can use their length as an advantage for them. I think they’re continuing to grow, they’re young from an experience standpoint because both Humph and Devin have played for us but they haven’t been starters for us, so they’re playing a lot and then Aziz every week just keeps getting better, he transferred in from Wyoming and the longer he gets, the more experience he gets in our system and he’s bouncing from corner to nickel and back to corner, so getting some valuable reps in there. Obviously, Jaylin Davies is getting some valuable reps, he had a pick in the Alabama State game, it was good for him to get that and also Isaiah Newcombe’s contributing.

Keegan embrace his job at running back this year?

Yeah, I think the one thing about Keegan going through last spring is you can see him get better in every phase of what he’s doing, I think he’s done a really good job in pass pro and the protection part of things and we always knew he was a weapon coming out of the backfield but we’re not always free releasing the back, sometimes you have to keep the back in in protection people are going to put you in and I think he’s done a good job from that standpoint. He’s been really close on a couple of runs to really breaking some big ones for us, so we’re excited for him to continue to grow that way. He has a tremendous work ethic and has done a really nice job kind of fitting in as that guy behind Zach so that our game or our playcalling doesn’t drop off when Keegan’s in the game compared to when Zach’s in the game.

Cornerbacks giving up conversions on third down, is that about knowledge of down and distance?

That’s part of what’s going on and then the play call. You know, in one of those situations the other day we called for press but the corner wasn’t in press, so just really they’ve got to understand why we called press—it was a third and medium situation and we don’t want to be 10 yards off on third and medium, we want to be up a little closer to our work so, but that’s a process you learn once you start playing games.

Is part of that experience?

Yeah. For all those guys. I mean, that’s the one thing with them—I think they’re doing a really good job and they’re gaining valuable experience along the way, but they haven’t played a ton of snaps and now that we’ve got three games under our belt, you can see them just playing with a little more confidence, them trusting their technique, them understanding really kind of and then it starts to get into situational awareness and understanding where they fit in terms of what the play call is.

When you found out Jake Bobo might come here, what jumped out to you first?

Well, we knew of him—I know coach Cutcliffe really well, so when coach Cutcliffe left, I talked to him about his players and he gave me a great recommendation about Jake as a player and then when you watch the tape, he was the leading receiver in the ACC on a team that really didn’t have a rushing attack and I think when people played Duke, you knew they were going to throw the ball and you knew they were going to throw the ball to Bobo and he still caught it, so his ability to make contested catches was really impressive. He played a Thursday night game against Louisville where even the announcers and everybody said, ‘This is going to Bobo’ and it went to Bobo and he still was making catches, so you had a kid who could win in one-on-one situations but then when you met him as a person and understand his mindset and his work ethic and what he wants to get accomplished, everything we learned after we saw the film—and we fell in love with him when we watched the film—but then when you meet him as a person, just his mindset, his toughness, what he brings from a work ethic standpoint, from a leadership standpoint I think has been outstanding, so we’re really excited to have Jake here.

Difference you find in players with a football family and background? Dad was an SEC quarterback and coordinator?

No, that’s not his dad. His dad was a linebacker at Dartmouth College, so his dad and mom—his mom was an outstanding hockey player at Dartmouth, so they went to Dartmouth together, so he comes from an athletic football family and I think he grew up around sports and I think that’s a really big deal for him. I think he’s one of those kids that just went from one season to the next season to the next season, so he’s got a really athletic mind in terms of processing things and how it works. And he’s got a burning passion and desire to be great and I think that’s the one thing you notice every day with him is that’s what he’s trying to do.

Learning curve different for guys who don't come from that background?

It could be. You know, some guys pick things up instantly, other guys have to work at it a little bit. I think every kid, it’s done on an individual basis but Jake picked things up really quickly here. And our tight end coach, Jeff Faris, came from Duke, so I think he did a decent job of being able to help bridge that gap because most of the time people are doing the same things, at Duke they called it this, at UCLA we call it that.

High school pipelines are a thing, but now you keep getting Duke transfers – is it possible to have a pipeline from one college to another?

You know, I think we got two from Duke this year, I think our relationship with coach Cutcliffe helped because I think both Gary and Jake’s respect for coach Cut was a big deal and then their respect for coach Faris was kind of part of it but I don’t know, things change so quickly with the transfer deal, yeah, I’m not sure, and I know Mike’s doing a really good job at Duke right now, I think they’re undefeated also, so maybe there’s not going to be a lot of guys from there leaving, Mike’s done a good job and got them going in the right direction, so.

Got Brittain Brown too, that makes three

Yeah, that’s three and that was again because of our relationship with coach Cutcliffe. You know, we don’t take anybody unless we talk to the head coach of the other team and kind of get their recommendation in doing our background work and I’ve known coach Cut for a long time, have a great respect for him, so that certainly helped, yeah.

Duke's academics help with that?

Yeah, certainly and if you look at our transfers, you know, we have Harvard, Michigan, Duke, we’ve got a kid from Penn, we’ve got a kid from Fordham, you know, there are some academics—that’s the first thing we look at when a kid goes in the portal is, will he be an admittable student because it’s wasting the kid’s time and our time if we go try and recruit a kid that we’re not going to be able to get into school, so there’s a reason some of our transfers are coming from some of these really high-profile academic schools similar to what we have here.

Players going through adjustment with classes starting?

Yeah, I think because their day changes but what we’ve always done is, our training sessions don’t change, so they’re done at 11 and they go off to academics, so we’re not going to change—I think at some schools maybe on the quarter system now that school starts they’re going to practice at a different time, they’re going to meet at a different time and we’re not because we’ve been doing this whole time so they’re done every day at 11 and then we go from 11 to 5 academics so now instead of going from 11 to 5 they can get treatment and hang out and be a summertime college student, that just changes the academic part of that, so our schedule doesn’t change and our demands on them doesn’t change.

Defensive line rotation with Martin Andrus out?

Yeah, we’re just, you’re probably going to see a little more Dovid, you’re probably going to see a little more Gary, a little more Jacob, it’s just there’s one guy down there and we’ve got one guy down there and we’ve got to be able to step up but those guys have all played—we rotated six defensive linemen in our first three games, so now we’ll be rotating five defensive linemen in this game, so.

Gary Smith practicing today?

We’ll see today what he can do.

How close are Hayden and Quintin to being able to make an impact on the field?

Yeah, Q is doing a really good job, you know, we’ll see where he is and we also have some flexibility with our outside guys, so we feel real confident moving forward with our defensive line position.

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