WATCH: Chip Kelly on Utah's Aaron Lowe, Takeaways From Stanford Game

The Bruins' coach planned to talk to his team about Lowe's death after Monday's practice.

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talks about what he saw looking back at film from the Stanford game, the importance of building a family in and around the locker room and what challenges Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels will pose come Saturday.

CHIP KELLY

Opening Statement

I’d first like to say that our thoughts and prayers are with the University of Utah and Aaron Lowe’s family about the tragedy that happened over the weekend and puts things in perspective for everybody. I know they lost a player last offseason who was actually really close with Aaron—Aaron was representing him—so it’s a tough thing for them so our thoughts and prayers are with those guys.

Talk to your team about it?

We haven’t had a chance. We’re going to do it later on.

Talk to coach Whittingham?

I just texted him, Kyle.

Dorian?

He’ll be out there today.

Tests to make sure he was structurally OK?

He gets examined by our medical staff all the time.

Cleared to practice full go?

He’s cleared to go out on the field; we’ll see what he can do.

Marrazzo?

Sam is unavailable.

Decision-making on who fills in behind Marrazzo?

We’ll rotate everybody in there and see who’s available.

Quentin Lake didn't play, cleared now?

We’ll see what he can do today.

He'll be out there?

Yep.

Talking to Garbers pre-snap when he came in? Telling him to relax?

I don’t recall that. I don’t think you can look at a quick sound bite and see where a conversation is going. Just ask me if I told him to relax and if that was what the conversation was about, so. And I don’t recall what it was. It could have been making a check about what the secondary was doing. One thing about Garbs that I love—and like all of our backup quarterbacks—they’re into every play, so we use them a lot on the sideline, so it will be one of those things of my quick reference of, ‘Hey, what was the coverage there,’ and they’ll be able to give you, ‘Hey, it was Cover-1, coach it was Cover-2, corner carry [?], you know, those guys, him and Chase have been fantastic in terms of being able to give us information on the sideline and we rely on those guys a lot, so it could have just been a conversation on what the coverage was.

Unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end?

Yeah, that was on me. They didn’t like what I said to them.

What did you say?

That I didn’t like their call.

What was the call?

It was a non-call. That’s all I can say about the officials. It was a non-call that I disagreed with, so I got a penalty.

Express yourself colorfully?

No.

First one of your career?

Yep.

Feelings about it?

I feel it was the appropriate time because we were taking a knee so it didn’t affect the outcome of what was going to happen. I would not have done it if it would have affected the outcome of what was going to happen. We just got moved back 15 yards and we’ll take a knee from 15 yards back, so. Learn when we can do it and when we can’t do it.

Dorian gutsy?

I think it’s always been impressive and he’s been that type of player since the jump. I remember the first start of his career at Oklahoma and how tough he was taking on the Oklahoma team, so it was not of any surprise to me, one of Dorian’s best qualities is his toughness and I think that shone through on Saturday.

Game film surprises?

No, I mean, I think it was two tough football teams competing. We knew even when we jumped out to an early lead that the one thing I know about Stanford, it’s a resilient bunch, it’s a tough bunch, it’s as well of a coached team as we’ll ever face, they’re in every game they play, they give themselves an opportunity, I think that team has tremendous poise, so we knew and we talked about it all week long to our players that we’re going to get their best shot and we’ve got to be able to trade punches, so when it got tied up at 21 I don’t think anyone was surprised but I thought our guys showed great resiliency and being able to handle that and weather that and then for our defense to play that team and hold them to 55 snaps, they had three spikes, so 55 snaps and 11 first downs was a real credit to how our guys played. We need to eliminate the X plays, I think that was a factor in what helped them offensively, but I thought it was a really good effort by our defense.

Pass defense looked solid outside of the two long TDs?

They did a nice job, there are some corrections we need to make there, but I think we generated and forced the pocket better than we did the week before. I thought we were closer in our coverage than we were the week before. So again, everything we talk about, there's three phases: There's preparation, which occurs during the week, there's competition, which we have on Saturdays and then there's the learning phase. So we're going through that today, making proper corrections from what transpired on Saturday, and then we move on to Arizona State.

Carl Jones play well? Say anything to him leaving down the tunnel?

I just thought Carl played a great game. I think he's starting to come into his own, he got recruited here as a safety, he's played inside linebacker, I think he's finally settled into our Bruin spot on defense and is really starting to feel comfortable out there. You can see him playing with confidence, he's a tough, physical kid, he's got a great motor, and I was just really happy for all the work that Carl's put in. He's one of our hardest working guys and to see it show up on the field like it did on Saturday is what Carl is all about. I was just excited for the kid.

Happy with the team's production throughout the season?

Yeah, that's what this is all about, you get a test every week. It's not about the cumulative part of it, it's about staying in the moment, it's staying in the process. I think if you look at the sports psychology studies, if you look too forward into the future, you're too anxious, and you can reduce 80% of your anxiety if you just live in the process and that's what we try to do. So we had a really good week last week, Monday through Friday, and then it paid off for us on Saturday and then we'll just start the same process over again this week. So we're trying to climb a mountain each week, so we're right at the bottom of the mountain again right now. We'll start right now, getting ready for our preparation for Arizona State.

Marrazzo talked to media about Gaines' father, what does it say about him going out of his way for a teammate like that?

Yeah, Sam's awesome. He's been a great leader from the beginning since he got here. He's worked his way through everything, everybody on this football team has a tremendous amount of respect for Sam, how he carries himself on a daily basis, it doesn't surprise me. We're all aware of the story, but the fact that Sam would spend time to talk about Jon just tells you how much he loves Jon and how much he cares about Jon and his family. That's what makes Sam such a special guy.

Program helped fly Jon out to see his family?

Yeah, that's what the process is for us, it's that we are a family. And when someone is in our family or extended family like Jon's dad that's going through something, that it's important for Jon to be there. So with the NCAA rules, there's a fund that we can help student-athletes with that. We applied for that, we got a chance to get Jon home, be with his family and spend time with them. And they were out for I think it may have been the LSU game, got a chance to see them after the game, but that's kinda what it's all about.

Have to start from scratch shutting down Jayden Daniels after doing it in 19 and 20?

We need to start from scratch. This will be our second time playing this scheme, he was more of a spread offense guy in the first year that we played him and then last year they brought in Zak Hill from Boise State so they've changed to a little bit more of a multiple tight end set. We played them down there during COVID, obviously it was a different time for everybody, all of last year was, so how that game played out – we'll look at the film from last year's game, but we still have four games to go off of this year. So I'm confident our coaching staff will put a pretty good plan together in how to defend him, but that's obviously the key, Jayden is the key to that offense and we need to contain him because he's explosive in the run game. And really, a lot of it's not designed runs, it's just when things are covered, he can take off and go and he can eat up some chunks of yards cause he's a really productive runner and is obviously a very accurate passer. So trying to keep Jayden in check will be a real big, tall task for us this week.

Pass defense looked solid outside of the two long TDs?

They did a nice job, there are some corrections we need to make there, but I think we generated and forced the pocket better than we did the week before. I thought we were closer in our coverage than we were the week before. So again, everything we talk about, there's three phases: There's preparation, which occurs during the week, there's competition, which we have on Saturdays and then there's the learning phase. So we're going through that today, making proper corrections from what transpired on Saturday, and then we move on to Arizona State.

Carl Jones play well? Say anything to him leaving down the tunnel?

I just thought Carl played a great game. I think he's starting to come into his own, he got recruited here as a safety, he's played inside linebacker, I think he's finally settled into our Bruin spot on defense and is really starting to feel comfortable out there. You can see him playing with confidence, he's a tough, physical kid, he's got a great motor, and I was just really happy for all the work that Carl's put in. He's one of our hardest working guys and to see it show up on the field like it did on Saturday is what Carl is all about. I was just excited for the kid.

Happy with the team's production throughout the season?

Yeah, that's what this is all about, you get a test every week. It's not about the cumulative part of it, it's about staying in the moment, it's staying in the process. I think if you look at the sports psychology studies, if you look too forward into the future, you're too anxious, and you can reduce 80% of your anxiety if you just live in the process and that's what we try to do. So we had a really good week last week, Monday through Friday, and then it paid off for us on Saturday and then we'll just start the same process over again this week. So we're trying to climb a mountain each week, so we're right at the bottom of the mountain again right now. We'll start right now, getting ready for our preparation for Arizona State.

Marrazzo talked to media about Gaines' father, what does it say about him going out of his way for a teammate like that?

Yeah, Sam's awesome. He's been a great leader from the beginning since he got here. He's worked his way through everything, everybody on this football team has a tremendous amount of respect for Sam, how he carries himself on a daily basis, it doesn't surprise me. We're all aware of the story, but the fact that Sam would spend time to talk about Jon just tells you how much he loves Jon and how much he cares about Jon and his family. That's what makes Sam such a special guy.

Program helped fly Jon out to see his family?

Yeah, that's what the process is for us, it's that we are a family. And when someone is in our family or extended family like Jon's dad that's going through something, that it's important for Jon to be there. So with the NCAA rules, there's a fund that we can help student-athletes with that. We applied for that, we got a chance to get Jon home, be with his family and spend time with them. And they were out for I think it may have been the LSU game, got a chance to see them after the game, but that's kinda what it's all about.

Have to start from scratch shutting down Jayden Daniels after doing it in 19 and 20?

We need to start from scratch. This will be our second time playing this scheme, he was more of a spread offense guy in the first year that we played him and then last year they brought in Zak Hill from Boise State so they've changed to a little bit more of a multiple tight end set. We played them down there during COVID, obviously it was a different time for everybody, all of last year was, so how that game played out – we'll look at the film from last year's game, but we still have four games to go off of this year. So I'm confident our coaching staff will put a pretty good plan together in how to defend him, but that's obviously the key, Jayden is the key to that offense and we need to contain him because he's explosive in the run game. And really, a lot of it's not designed runs, it's just when things are covered, he can take off and go and he can eat up some chunks of yards cause he's a really productive runner and is obviously a very accurate passer. So trying to keep Jayden in check will be a real big, tall task for us this week.

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