WATCH: Chip Kelly talks defensive line, COVID timelines and Kazmeir Allen

The fourth-year coach spoke with reporters prior to Wednesday's practice

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talks to the media about COVID-19 protocols, the position status of Kazmeir Allen, the Bruins’ defensive line depth and more.

CHIP KELLY

Cheated and saw McQuarrie was out here...

That's not cheating.

Updates on previously unavailable players?

Nope, everything's the same as it's been before. If they're not here today, they're unavailable.

What is the COVID policy for vaxxed/unvaxxed players?

It's the same. Our guys all get tested once a week. We're on a once-a-week protocol for testing, whether you're vaccinated or not vaccinated. We have 98% of our kids vaccinated and we have just a small group that has a waiver, cause if you're not vaccinated, you have to have a waiver.

Protocol for vaccinated players who test positive?

You're out for however long, whatever that time is. (SCOTT: 10 days)

Have the players filed the waivers?

Yeah, everybody's clear right now. So the whole team is, you're either vaccinated or you have a waiver right now, there's nobody that we're waiting on to hear about.

How have young defensive lineman looked?

They've done a good job. I think the one thing overall for our defensive line is we have depth. So we have a lot of veterans returning, but we added, I think, a real good group to that group, so I think we feel better about our depth than anything else. We can rotate two in at some positions, three deep, and there's not a dropoff. But that's the positive of where we are. A lot of it is a lot of those kids, and everywhere around the country, are allowed to come back, so really last year didn't count for anything so the depth everywhere is up, especially on our defensive line. We feel a lot more comfortable with the depth we have on the line.

Kazmier Allen playing running back or receiver?

He does both. He’s just a jack of all trades. He does individuals with the wideouts because he’s done individuals with the running backs for three years. He can play both positions for us and will play both positions for us.

Who is he actually coached by in groups?

Again, he’s doing individuals with the wide receivers, and then when we get the team we just move him around according to what we scripted that day. So if he’s a running back then coach Foster coaches him and if he’s a wideout on that play then Jerry will coach him.

Offensive line?

Yeah again that’s another spot of depth where they’re all returning. Everybody that played for us last year is returning. You got Sean and Alec playing tackle and then we have a bunch of guys inside that got a lot of experience. Paul Grattan, Duke, Jonny Gaines, Nio Mafi, Siale, so we feel like we’ve got, again just like the question about the D Line, we feel like we have a lot of depth there now. And that was the two biggest spots when we first got here was replenishing the defensive line and the offensive line. I think we’re back to where we need to be.”

Help with rhythm?

It does, it’s the byproduct of their experience. The more they understand what they’re facing schematically and then they know how Paul — Sean knows how Paul’s gonna handle that, Sean knows how John’s gonna handle that. I just think all those guys are all on the same page, all in lockstep.

Any other areas of improvement besides depth and experience?

We'll see when we go play the game, that's what the game...obviously will bring out. We're taking care of what we can take care of from a training standpoint. Our guys' work ethic is tremendous, they had a great summer working out with our strength and conditioning program and they've been great so far. We'll figure the rest of it out when we start playing games.

Any areas of concern where you say, "I don't like the depth here"?

Every area is a concern. We're not kicking out feet up and saying that we've arrived. We still have a really good 12 game schedule that we have to play, which is...today we feel good about where we are but we have to continue to build. We're not playing for two more weeks, so you never know what can happen in two weeks, so we'll see what happens.

Michael Ezeike at tight end?

Mike's done a great job. The transition hasn't been that hard for Mike, he was an inside receiver for us, so a lot of the same rules and routes apply. It's just more of being in line and being involved in the blocking scheme when he plays can't hear this part ... the tight end position. We also flex our tight end so I think the flex part he's already had and done, but he's really grasped the blocking part of it really fast. He's a real tough kid to begin with, he was one of our most physical receivers, and that's correlated with him moving to tight end. So, I think he's done a really good job and it gives us another weapon that we can showcase in there, along with Greg and Mike and Priebe.

What receivers give you a deep threat?

There's a few of them. Obviously Kaz is out there, Chase Cota is out there, Cam Brown can stretch a defense, Colson Yankoff can really stretch a defense, so we've got four or five of them now on the perimeter that we feel we can really run.

Colson back 100% from his injury in spring?

Today he is unavailable. 

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