WATCH: Chip Kelly meets with media for final time before regular season
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talked to the media about the Pac-12/ACC/Big Ten alliance and its impact on future scheduling, the potential playing time for certain veterans this weekend against Hawai’i and his thoughts on how far the Bruins have come during his four years.
CHIP KELLY
Year 4 of Chip Kelly enough time for 2021 to be fair assessment on what you can do at UCLA?
Yeah, we’re excited about this season. Our players have had a great off-season, have worked extremely hard and we’re excited about getting a chance to get on the field and play against Hawaii.
Removed barriers to success (inexperience, depth, defense) from first two seasons?
Yeah, I’m really excited about playing Hawaii, Ben.
Big picture questions for you...
Great.
Get what you needed to out of the way in order to set up success?
We need to have a really good Wednesday. We live in the moment and we’ve got to have a great Wednesday today. We did a good job on Monday, did a good job on Tuesday and are excited to put a good Wednesday in and then keep on laser-focused on playing Hawaii.
Alliance reaction?
No, I did not see the press conference. Martin grabbed me before we went out on the field because obviously he had talked to the commissioner about kind of what’s going on, so I think the landscape of college football has changed, obviously, with the expansion of the SEC, so I think the three commissioners are trying to put together a plan of what it looks like—I don’t know if anybody really knows what the landscape of college football will look like in a couple of years, but I think they’re trying to be collaborative, which is a smart idea, you know, all three of those guys are really smart and the fact that they said it was unanimous between the 41 institutions that are involved in it is a pretty good deal, so it was more of just a framework from the way it was explained to me with them moving forward. They’re going to try to be a collaboration between the three conferences to be able to handle the adjustments that are going on in college football right now.
Thoughts on going to 8 conference games?
We've got as much vote as you guys have. We've always been the mindset of tell us what the schedule is and we'll go play it. So we enjoy the rivalries that we have in this league, but if you get a chance to play against great teams in the Big Ten and ACC also, then we'd be all for that. So whatever they think is the best for the league, we've got all the confidence in the world in the commissioner, in what they're trying to get accomplished. And we've got games scheduled out til '30 so I think it's gonna be a ways away. If they drop it and go to eight conference games, that means we can pick one more up so we'd be excited about that.
Garbers mastery of the offense?
Yeah, Ethan's really sharp, real intelligent kid. He's got a year of college football experience. He was here, fortunately for us, during the spring, so he got a chance to really pick up what we've done offensively. We're excited if Ethan goes in a game, we don't have to make any adjustments in terms of play-calling and things like that, just say 'Hey, this is the only part that he knows.' He's a sharp young man and if the opportunity is called upon then I think we'll be able to go out there and really perform.
Shaw not on the two-deep?
Jay's in the mix. You can only list two so there's a – we're gonna rotate, we're gonna play a lot of guys on Saturday, we know it's gonna be hot. So two-deep's something that you have to send out, but I wouldn't be really concerned with the two-deep, to be honest with you. Jay's gonna play a lot of football for us.
Same thing for Jay Toia?
We'll see on Jay. We haven't sat down and talked as a staff about what the rotations will be, but I know Jay Shaw will definitely be in the mix.
Garrett DiGiorgio on two-deep?
Yea Garrett’s done a really nice job, he's a kid we’re really excited about. He's big, athletic, over 6’6, over 300 pounds, he's picking things up very quickly, and has given himself an opportunity again like Ethan Garbers if he had to put themselves in the mix he would put himself in the mix.
Second to last year of contract, how do you handle that with recruits?
Yeah I’ve got two years left and I’m excited about those two years. We’ll take care of business on the field and the rest of it will take care of itself.
Is that a problem with recruits?
It has not been a problem.
Sam Marrazzo not on two-deep, unavailable Saturday?
We haven’t made that determination. Again, the two-deep was sent out on Monday so that was the two-deep as of Monday and today’s Wednesday. I guarantee it’ll change again on Thursday and again on Friday. You gotta have some flexibility and agility in this day and age.
Is one drawback of having the whole O-Line back that young guys don’t get game experience?
I've never felt like having a lot of returning guys is a bad thing. We look at it as a positive thing, and the best players play. There’s always competition and the best players find their way on the field. Rather than have the alternative where we have 5 freshmen out there and say ‘Hey this is a great thing’. You can spin it any way you want but having depth is a great thing.
Team's mindset heading into first game?
They're excited about the opportunity to play. We last played in December, we've been against each other all through spring training, and then since we've started here since the end of July. So, the fact that you get to play against another team, in front of fans, for the first time in a long time for these guys, you really get a feel for what it's like to play college football in some sense of normalcy. They're just excited about that. You can tell there's an energy and a juice with this group, but they just can't wait to play another team right now.
Haven't won a nonconference game since you've been here?
Again, we want to win every game we play, Ben, so we don't look at it and talk to our team, 'This is noncon, this means this, this is con, this means this, this is a home game, this means this, this is an away game, this means this.' I think that just kind of convolutes it. I go to my normal statement that I say a lot: 'TBU' – true but useless. We're not going to talk to our guys about 'Hey, this is a conference game, let's approach this differently,' it's we have an opportunity to play against a really good, well coached Todd Graham team out of Hawaii, and we're excited to go play the game.
Different mindset for starting with a season-opening win for first time at UCLA?
You want to win every game though. I think you're trying to couch it and write a narrative. I don't think anybody says 'Hey, let's win the opener, we don't care about game two. And game three is out of conference, let's not worry about that. But then when we get into conference play we're going to change our mentality...' You want to win every opportunity that you get a chance to get on the field. In football, you don't play that many regular season games. This is not basketball, baseball, any of those other sports. You don't have that opportunity to say the opener is more important than this game. Every game you play is extremely important, you never know what the outcome of the game is going to do down the end of the road, so every single game we play is important and every chance we get to compete is important. We only have 12 opportunities right now, between now and the end of the season, so we're going to put everything we have into this game, and then when this game's over, we're going to regroup and put in everything we have into the next one, and so on, and so on, and so on.
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