UCLA Football: Fans Take To The Skies To Let Bruins Know How They Feel About Chip Kelly

For weeks, the status of Chip Kelly at UCLA remained a relative mystery.

A disastrous loss at home to an undermanned Arizona State team had Kelly presumably on the hot seat. A week later, UCLA thumped crosstown rival USC handily in the Coliseum by 3+ scores. Then, the Bruins laid a total egg at home against UC rival Cal.

If you were looking at all of the main social media platforms, it appeared as if the general consensus involved getting rid of the sixth-year head coach ASAP in order to pursue other candidates (such as Jonathan Smith or Jedd Fisch).

With the weekend following Thanksgiving coming and going without even a whisper of the situation leaking, the fan base seemingly began to understand that a move would not be made. As fate would have it, Bruin Report Online reported Monday afternoon that sources indicated Kelly would indeed be brought on for another year despite a very complicated six-year run in Westwood.

In the wake of this news, a group of UCLA fans took to the skies to truly illustrate how they feel about Kelly being reportedly brought back:

Plane flying over UCLA’s campus with banner reading “Read the room — fire Chip Kelly.” pic.twitter.com/vppfdUAr3g
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) November 28, 2023

Flying over both the UCLA campus and the team's practice facility, a plane carried a banner that said "Read the room -- fire Chip Kelly."

The 'read the room' part might confuse some people. AD Martin Jarmond allegedly has the reputation of a guy who loves the spotlight -- especially as it pertains to social media.

It's in reference to this post Jarmond made after UCLA had easily beaten USC on his Instagram page. One account commented "FIRE CHIP" -- to which Jarmond responded "Read the room [insert rolling eyes face emoji] Go Bruins!!! [insert blue heart, bell, blue heart]."

#UCLA fans paid for a banner to be flown over campus Tuesday morning, asking for Martin Jarmond to "Read the Room: Fire Chip Kelly". Read our story here: https://t.co/CDg1QBJEHF
— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) November 28, 2023

As of Tuesday afternoon, there's still not been any sort of official word from Jarmond or the university as it pertains to Kelly's status.

This does seem like a precarious time for the program. If Kelly does indeed come back, disgruntled donors might very well withhold their funds -- instead opting to move them toward basketball or another program.

With NIL funding becoming imperative in today's college football landscape, UCLA might be sorely lacking the resources to compete at even a mediocre level in the Big Ten for the foreseeable future.

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