UCLA Football Looking For First Win Over Oregon Under Chip Kelly

At this point, Chip Kelly's third return to Eugene is hardly the biggest storyline heading into Saturday's high-stakes showdown.

The Bruins are undefeated, ESPN is bringing the "College GameDay" crew to town and both sides are currently ranked inside the AP top 10. An eventual appearance in the Pac-12 Championship Game – or even the College Football Playoff – could be on the line.

And yet, one of college football's most accomplished and well-known coaches of the past 15 years still hasn't beaten his former team since rejoining the conference, adding personal stakes to the equation even if he won't fully recognize them.

"It's always special going back there, it's a special place in my life and there's a lot of great people there that had a profound impact on my life," Kelly said Monday. "But I'm not playing the game, so that's – we're totally focused. ... It's a business trip, just like any other away game in this league."

Despite No. 10 Oregon (5-1, 3-0 Pac-12) being the third consecutive ranked opponent for No. 9 UCLA football (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12), this is not just any other away game for the blue and gold. The Bruins haven't won in Eugene since 2004 and they are just 1-9 against the Ducks dating back to 2008.

Kelly himself is responsible for a handful of those losses, including one in the 2011 Pac-12 Championship Game.

The arrival of Kelly in 2018 didn't exactly flip the script, either, with UCLA owning an 0-3 record against Oregon since he took over. A win Saturday could do a great number of things – fast track the Bruins towards the conference title game, extend the team's best start in nearly two decades, break their losing streak in Duck country and finally get Kelly a win over the program he rose to fame with.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, left guard Atonio Mafi and other UCLA players were asked about what it would mean to help their coach beat his former employer, and while they recognized the special narrative behind this specific matchup, they said they are always ready to lift up their leader and get him a win regardless of who the opponent is.

"You grow up and you always knew Chip Kelly and when Oregon was popular," Mafi said. "But now we want to get the win just cause coach Kelly is our coach, not because of what you had over there at Oregon."

The narrative will surely be spelled out on "College GameDay," the three-hour rotating national pregame show that came to Westwood for UCLA-Oregon in 2021 – the Ducks won that one 34-31.

With that experience in their back pocket, Bruins like Thompson-Robinson said they are well aware of the eyeballs that will be on them in Eugene this weekend. But after hosting then-No. 15 Washington and then-No. 11 Utah at the Rose Bowl on national television the past few weeks and emerging with victories in both contests, that factor won't be anything they aren't already comfortable with.

"I think it’s going to be a special moment for everybody, we live for games like this —when you get a sold-out crowd, it’s on 'College GameDay,'" Thompson-Robinson said. "Anything and everything you could ask for, it’s going to be at this game, so we live for moments like this. It’s going to be really fun, and so I think we’re just ready to attack the week and then looking forward to Saturday, for sure."

What may take a little more adjusting is the true road environment, considering UCLA has played five of its first six games at home. Its one road game was at Colorado, which was winless and on the verge of firing head coach Karl Dorrell.

The forecast calls for rain in Eugene on Saturday, and the 54,000 fans will likely be the loudest the Bruins have heard all fall. Kelly and his staff have attempted to prepare the players by squirting water on balls and playing crowd noise and grating music over the speakers at practice, but it would take quite a few more modifications to turn Wasserman Football Center into Autzen Stadium.

To pick up a win in that environment would be something novel for UCLA, its coaches, its players and many of its fans. The same could have been said about their success the past few weeks, though, so there is a chance that the Bruins' winning ways and changed culture will follow them 855 miles up the Pacific Coast.

"Over the past years, the losing seasons, the tears, a lot of people just get fed up with it and want to win," said safety Stephan Blaylock. "And that's what we've been doing."

UCLA and Oregon are set to kick off at 12:35 p.m.. "College GameDay" will run from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on ESPN, while the game will be broadcast on FOX.

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