WATCH: Chip Kelly Speaks on Injury Statuses, Arizona State Run Game
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talks to the media about key injury updates, Arizona State’s running game and having to play back-to-back night games on the West Coast.
CHIP KELLY
Fernea cast, said surgery went well? What happened?
He is unavailable, that’s all I’m allowed to say about everybody, so.
Unavailable for many for many weeks now?
I don’t have that answer to you, so he’s unavailable today.
Say what happened?
Nope, he’s unavailable.
Mike Martinez?
We’ll see what he can do today and we’ll make a decision on everybody on Friday.
Practicing today?
We’ll see what he can do today.
Going to St. John Bosco vs. Mater Dei?
We’ve already been to those schools, so you’re only allowed to go once to a school during an evaluation period.
Can only go to one school one time?
You can only go to a school once, so we’ve already been there for our evaluations.
Didn't want to pick that one strategically?
We go to practice because you can see more players in practice.
Charbonnet starting running back?
It may have been the play call, so those guys rotate. DeShaun does a great job rotating and keeping those guys fresh, so it could have been the play call to start the game if that was—we actually had two running backs in on the first play, so they were both starters, so a receiver got taken out on that play, so we actually started with two running backs on that series because that’s what the play call dictated, so they were both technically starters by that rule.
Black jerseys?
Those are their T-shirts that they wear under their pads. That’s just a T-shirt, it’s not a jersey, so all of their T-shirts are numbered so we never come out in just shorts and T-shirts that they have a number on. They didn’t have any blue jerseys, so we have black for offense and white for defense. It’s just a T-shirt.
Doesn't indicate long-term injury?
Nah. What is this, like CSI Los Angeles? Holy smokes. Actually, I saw a kid with one white sock and one black sock, but I can’t tell you what that formula’s for. Yeah, he plays both sides of the ball, that’s a good point.
Herm called your offense eye candy, happy with offense?
No, I mean you’re always pleased but you’re not satisfied. I think we left a lot on the [inaudible] against Stanford if we could have executed better in certain situations, I could have called better plays in certain situations, so after every game, you’re always going to say, ‘What could we have done better?’ and then when you look at the film there’s coaching points that you can make and execution points that you can make, so I’m pleased with the effort and that’s the one thing we talk to our players about all the time is the effort that we play with and I think our group plays with—in all phases—really hard, but there’s still always correctable things you can do and as we say all the time, our week is we prepare, then we compete and then we learn from there, so we’ll go through the film immediately after, for the coaches when we’re going to an away game we watch the film on the plane, so you can come down from a very high win after you’re watching the film and by the time you land you’re like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to fix this, we’ve got to fix this, what if we tweak this, what if we tweak that,’ so that’s part of the process, but I’ve been pleased in every game we’ve played so far with our effort and that’s the one thing that I think our players can control that we’re always striving for improvement, we’re always striving to get better.
Leaving points on board but still scoring 38 a game?
Yeah, again, it’s all cyclical in terms of what is each week for us? So we break down, again it’s about the process and having a really good Wednesday, so in some games we’re going to have to score a lot of points, that’s just kind of how the game unfolds and in other games it’s going to be a rock fight and maybe a 17-14 final but as long as you do enough to end up on the right side of the ledger then it’s a productive day, but no matter what you do offensively or defensively, you can always improve upon that and we have a bunch of guys that are hungry like that too and I think they’re lifelong learners and they enjoy the X and O part of it and ‘Hey, if we did this, we actually could have been a little bit better even though we scored 38, you know what I mean, we could have scored 48 and that’s part of the process.
ASU leading Pac-12 in rushing?
They’ve got two solid running backs and I think Herm’s made a decision to run the ball. They’re more multi-tight end. I think when he first got there they were more of a spread team, they changed that when they brought in the coordinator from Boise, they’re more of a multiple tight end team and they’ve made more of a conscious decision to run the ball, so part of their rushing numbers going up is their rushing attempts have gone up – I don’t have them offhand but if you look at what they ran when they were a spread team, their rushing numbers compared to now, I think there’s obviously more attempts from that standpoint, but it’s a conscious effort that they’re going to try to run the ball and that’s going to be a real test for our front seven.
Jayden Daniels dangerous on improvised runs?
Yeah, that's one of his skill sets and a lot like some of those great quarterbacks at the next level, the Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilsons of the world, the Lamar Jacksons, it's the unscheduled ones that can really hurt you. Cause it may be a called pass play so everybody's in coverage, matched up with whoever they're matched up with, they may have five receivers out into a pattern and then if the rushing lanes break down or the contain that helped the rush breaks down, then he's really dangerous. And that's a really good point cause that's where he is at his best cause he is such a quality athlete that you gotta make sure you know where he is all the time and I think part of it is our D Line being really disinclined in the rush lanes against somebody like this.
Still getting COVID tested?
Yeah, on Mondays. Not everybody, I think the kids that aren't vaccinated that had the waivers are definitely, they're tested twice a week. And then there's testing for kids that want it on Mondays.
Talked to Kenny Churchwell yesterday...
Was he smiling? He's always smiling, I love Kenny's smile.
How great to have him back after opting out last year?
It was awesome. We were hopeful that he would come back, we respected his decision, COVID affected a lot of people in this country, it was a personal decision but that we supported 100%. Constant contact with him, coach Azz talked to him a lot, coach (???) talked to him a lot, we kept in contact with him and we were so excited that this season arrived and Kenny said he wanted to come back, we welcomed him with open arms. And he's been really good to see cause when you miss a year of football, there's a lot of snaps that the other guys have gotten that you haven't gotten, but to jump back into it the way he has, we were conscious to ease him back into it, I think KB did a really good job in the summertime of just getting him ready to prepare and play here at football speed. To see him make the pick in the Fresno game and then to see the quality snaps that he got against Stanford, and he's just scratching the surface cause he is a year separated from some of those other guys from an experience standpoint but he's a talented player. He was really pushing for playing time as a true freshman but then tore his ACL, so he's had some – he's faced some situations that have been difficult for him, but for him to bounce back and do what he's doing now, couldn't be more proud of him.
Gaines and Clemens bring to center position?
They're both really athletic, both are really smart. I think all three kids that have played center for us – Sam, Duke and Jon – our center calls our fronts, our center calls out our blocking schemes, he's kinda our quarterback of the offensive line and all three of the guys – Sam, Duke and Jon – have that ability. They're students of the game, they're really kind of an extension of coach Frye in terms of what they're doing up front, and then the other thing is Duke and Jon specifically are really athletic so you can do some things schematically. Not many teams can pull a center, we can pull a center with those two guys cause they've also played a ton of football at guard for us so we have the ability to pull both those guys, whether they're at guard or whether they're at center. That's something that stands out with both those guys is their athleticism.
Effects of late night games, hurt East Coast recruiting?
Yeah, all those things end up being – I gotta put them in a category so they're TBUs cause we have no say in when we play. We can say, hey, we wish we played at this time, but when a whole factor of the country doesn't get to see you play, it has to factor in. I'm a firm believer Christian McCaffrey did not win the Heisman Trophy because they played so many night games. I mean, look at his numbers – he had 500 more yards than Barry Sanders, he's the all-time all-purpose player in college football history, yet didn't win the Heisman Trophy. To me, it was because a lack of exposure, and I think everybody understands that. I don't have the solution to it, nor am I asked the solution to it, so they tell us when we play, we play. They tell us when we play in Lot 8 at 6 a.m., we're gonna play in Lot 8. Last year, they told us 43 hours before Cal, you're not playing Utah, you're gonna play Cal and it's gonna be at 9 a.m. in front of no fans at the Rose Bowl. Alright, we'll get our team ready and we'll go play.
Solution for the Pac-12 commissioner to not schedule night games?
That's above my pay grade, so I'm not ever gonna tell the Pac-12 commissioner what he should and shouldn't do. You do that, Ben. Give him a call and you have a chat with him, that's not me. They tell us when to play, we play. And again, that's not a big deal to me. I have a personal preference, I think college football should be played in the afternoon. The NFL's played in the afternoon, there's one night game in the National Football League on Sunday night, the rest of the games are all in the afternoon and they all play at the same time. So the whole, 'We don't want to play certain games at certain times,' that's the part I don't understand. Put them on and then the fans decide what game they want to watch, that's their choice. That's the good part of being American, you get to pick the game you want to see. But to not have people watch the game just cause they're sleeping and they're tired – I lived on the East Coast, I didn't get a chance to watch a lot of Pac-12. I had friends coaching in games when I was in the NFL, I never watched a 10:30 East Coast Pac-12 game, and I love football and I didn't stay up and watch it.
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