WATCH: Chip Kelly on Missing Players, UCLA's New Scholarship Guys
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UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke to reporters ahead of Tuesday morning’s fall camp session. Kelly gave updates on certain missing players and former walk-ons, talked about how he keeps in touch with the Bruins’ NFL alumni, detailed the importance of adding veteran transfers to the defense and shared his thoughts on UCLA’s impending move to the Big Ten.
Mike Martinez with the program?
Mike is not with us any longer.
Is that a new development?
He’s not with us any longer.
Damian Sellers?
Unavailable.
Still with the program?
Yep.
Patrick Selna?
Unavailable.
Still with the program?
Yep.
Loss of Martinez?
You’ve got to compensate. We feel good about our tight end room—they’re working extremely hard and I think it’s a really, really good group. We’re going to move on.
How did hiring Ken Norton Jr. come about?
I mean, I’ve always known of Ken – everybody’s known of Ken, especially the legacy that he left as a player and then what he did as a player in the National Footbal League and then when I was at Oregon I coached against Ken when he was on Pete’s staff at SC and when he was in the NFL with Seattle and the Raiders, so I’ve known of him and we had an opening when coach Pellum retired, was probably the first guy we thought of, brought him in to visit with him a little bit. He still has a house here, so this is kind of an off-season home for him, so it just kind of lined up and fit. We were really excited, coach Pellum was really a guy who stood out in this league for a long, long time at Cal and Oregon and here and when he retired, to be able to fill Don’s spot with Ken was big for us, so I think our players really enjoy it, he’s got a lot of knowledge, he’s coached at both levels, has been a coordinator in the NFL, so I think it’s a big plus for us right now.
Feel his love for the program?
Yeah, you sense that him, you sense it with DeShuan, you sense it with Jerry. You know, there’s a bond and a kinship and the former players who have been to practice, they're so excited that Ken’s back here. That’s a big part of it too.
Norton is very vocal and hands on?
He is. He’s always been that way since I’ve known him from coaching against him that that’s one of the things that the players that have played for him before that I’ve had a chance to visit with and talk with is that Ken does a great job of sharing his knowledge from his experience from playing the game and from all the years he’s coached the game, so he’s a hands-on teacher that’s doing a great job with our backers right now.
Martinez leaving present an opportunity for Habermehl?
The same and Hud would have had a ton of opportunities just because he deserves it, you know, he’s worked extremely hard at transitioning from wideout, which he came in as a freshman, to where he is now, he’s up to almost 250 pounds, he’s doing a heck of a job for us. We’ve got a bunch of guys here—him and ‘Zeke, Priebe, that have played a lot of football for us and then the two young freshmen are starting to come around, Carson was here because he could enroll early and Jack Pedersen has really shined since he got here, and he’s doing a really good job right now, so it may be our deepest position on both sides of the ball because we go four or five guys.
Hudson on scholarship?
Yep.
Shea Pitts?
Yep.
Foster says he keeps in touch with RB alums, are you in touch with guys during the NFL preseason and cutdown weeks?
Yeah, we text back and forth with those guys, with Josh and Felt, the guys that are playing, and Ethan Fernea had two catches the other day. I talked to the wideouts coach for the Colts the other day, was talking about what a great job he’s doing, we try to keep in touch with all of our guys. We had, I think, six kids drafted last year, the most in the Pac-12, and had another seven that got free-agent tryouts so there’s a bunch of guys from last year’s team that are running around NFL camps right now, so you kind of keep an eye on them.
What do you expect out of your new defensive coordinator?
It’s not just the coordinator, it’s the whole staff, they’ve bonded very well—Brian had been here from before, so a lot of the terminology has been the same and I think that’s the biggest thing is, what was the biggest thing for our players to handle in terms of how that transition [goes] and then maybe tweak a little bit from a technique standpoint, but there was a lot of carryover from a knowledge standpoint in terms of Brian being able to share that with Billy and Ken and Ikaika and Chad, so the group of them have really gotten together and they work really well together as a group, so I don’t look at that as an individual, I look at it as an entire side of the ball and I think they’re doing a really nice job.
So Sellers is still with the program?
Yeah.
Why isn't he on the roster?
He’s unavailable right now, so we’ll see.
Does UCLA having to explain itself to the UC Regents re: Big Ten move make sense to you?
I think that’s obviously Martin and chancellor Block handle all that, that’s not my role, so when the news came out for us, when we looked at it as a team, it’s a move that’s going to happen two years from now, so for us, after we got that information, our focus became on two things—this team and this year, so that’s kind of what we have our hands on, so we’re getting ready for our opening game against Bowling Green. We always keep our task on what’s next in line for us and that’s what’s next in line for the football program, so we don’t have any sway, it’s not like I’ve been invited to those talks nor should I be invited with those talks—that’s got nothing to do with me or any other coaches here, so that’s probably something that’s a chancellor Block and Martin conversation, if you want to have.
It will impact you in 2024
I know that, but I don’t have a vote in it, so.
In general, what are your thoughts on UCLA's move to the Big Ten?
My thoughts are that I don’t have a vote in it, so I’m going to get ready to have a really good Tuesday practice.
Hayden Nelson on scholarship?
No.
Alex Johnson?
No.
Jack Landherr?
No.
Nicholas Barr-Mira?
You guys can go through … I’ll tell you, when the kids go on scholarship I’ll give you that information.
Well we've asked but you haven't
But they haven’t gone on scholarship, that’s why I haven’t told you.
We've asked before
Hudson and those guys went on in the springtime.
And you didn't tell us
OK, so maybe they went on after you asked us, so.
So we have to ask
Yeah. It may have happened at the end of spring ball and I hadn’t talked about them.
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