WATCH: Chip Kelly Recaps UCLA's Win Over Stanford, Staving Off Comeback
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly shares his first thoughts following the Bruins’ road win over Stanford early Saturday night.
CHIP KELLY
Opening Statement
Good afternoon. It’s good to say afternoon. That’s the way college football should be.
Gutsy Dorian?
I thought the one thing that I don’t think gets mentioned enough with Dorian is how tough he is and he’s been tough from the get-go. I remember really the first game—he played in the opener against Cincinnati but then started against Oklahoma and got bounced around and I just remember seeing his mom after the game and saying, ‘You have a tough son, right there.’ And it’s an underrated quality for a quarterback to be a tough guy who will stand in there and play and I think that was on display today, it’s something that we’ve known for four years now but I think he really showed that tonight and I was really proud of how he played.
Hurt in first half too?
I don’t know that. He didn’t miss any time in the first half. They just tell me when he’s out and he got taken out there for a little bit and they told me he could go back in, so he’s a competitor, he loves to play and I think that was on display today.
How does that process work when he goes out?
The trainers and the medical team look at him and they tell us if he’s cleared. If he’s out, they tell me he’s out and then they tell me if he’s cleared to come back in.
Talk to him after he was cleared?
No. I think he went right back in to play.
Tests now?
Is he what?
X-Ray?
I don’t know where he is right now.
What makes him so good in the second half?
We don’t have a ton of data points from this season, it’s still early in the year. You know, didn’t play in the second half very rarely against Hawaii, but he’s a competitor, he competes and the longer he plays the more he learns and that’s what we talk about—we prepare each week, we compete each week and we learn and he can digest information during the game of what’s happened so that if we get back to this again, we want to do this, so we knew what we were doing, they had big personnel on the field and we knew we wanted to try to get Kyle down the seam, they had a big outside linebacker on him and it’s bang-bang, he made the play, but it’s exactly about what we talked about on the sideline before that, you know, we’re going to get in an open set and try t see if we can get a seam ball here [snaps fingers] and he handles it, so really, really impressive performance by him today.
Effective throwing to Charbonnet in second quarter, see matchup there?
Yeah, they tried to man up our outside guys, you know, so just trying to get the matchup with the running backs on the linebackers, that was something we felt like we could exploit a little bit, they were packing the box a little bit, so lets loosen them up and how can we get the ball to Zach on the perimeter and I thought both him and Brittain—I thought Brittain was going to break that one but he slipped, but I thought both him and Brittain gave us something there in the pass game.
More from Dulcich than start of the season?
Did you go to the LSU game?
Last game and two games before that?
We’ve only played four games, so again, it’s the same thing, if you’re going to play man coverage, we have to go to our best matchups and we really felt like our tight end and Kyle and Zach a little bit were some of the matchups and Dorian understands that, when they play man coverage, you know, we want to find out what our matchups are then how do we exploit those matchups.
They tied it in the fourth, last week prepare you mentally?
Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think you can look to that. Again, we prepare and we compete and we learn, so we talked about what happened in the Fresno game after the Fresno game, you know, that’s part of what we do on our Mondays where we sit down, watch film, what’s the reason for what went on whether it’s a W or whether it’s an L and how can we correct our mistakes and how do we build on what we did well, and I thought those guys did a great job, they were eager on Monday in our training session and that followed through the whole week, so I thought they would respond well and obviously they did—to be up 21-7 and then to be tied 21-21 and to come back is a credit to those guys to score twice after they tied it up was a real big deal for us.
Didn't capitalize enough on defense force five 3-and-outs on other end?
We actually planned that, we said, ‘Let’s keep this close,’ so we told our guys, ‘We don’t want to go crazy and try to score too much in the first half,’ I’m joking, but the mistakes we made in the first half were us—you know, we had a couple of bad snaps that we had to correct, we had a holding penalty we’ve got to correct and now all of a sudden we’re first and 20 when we’re moving the ball, but I really felt that in the first half the stops that occurred on those drives were self-inflicted, you know, it was us making mistakes, it wasn’t a great play by a defensive player and sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to them, but we’ve got to get the snap problems straightened out, we had too many errant snaps today—I think there were three, that I counted, that put us off schedule and when you’re playing a good team like Stanford you can’t be off schedule and that’s a really well-coached team, they were undermanned today because they had some kids out with the COVID restrictions, so I tip my cap to David and the coaching staff for the performance they put in today because they didn’t have all their weapons today and I’ve been where he’s been, that’s a tough deal. No one feels sorry for you but I do think they did a hell of a job coaching against us.
Want to answer with a long TD when they had a long TD?
No, we're not trying to show anybody, we're just trying to exploit what the defense is in. And they got a lot bigger, they brought in two outside linebackers, they weren't really ??? defense against us and even though we were in spread formation. And so if they are gonna do that, then they're trying to stop our run game so we try to spread them out a little bit throwing, we got the look we wanted, it was favorable, and give Kyle credit for running a great route and finishing. Sometimes guys catch up and it's just a big game, to finish in the end zone like he did was a big deal for him and the ball thrown to him cause he hit him in stride. If he hits him in stride, we have a chance to finish, so credit to those two guys. Good job of protection from those guys up front, credit to Kyle and Dorian for making that play. So I was very pleased to be answering that play.
Philips' performance?
Punt return to start it, just to set the tone to start the game, you always want to get out to a good start. And for him to set us up where we were and get the ball that tight in the red zone after that return. We felt like we had an opportunity in the return game, I thought our guys did a really good job all week long in the plan that coach Sage and the special teams guys had of really getting a holdup on the return in there. Kyle, again, anywhere we can get the ball in his hands it's positive. It's tough because the return game in college football, it's really nonexistent with people and these spread punts, they kick the ball out of the back of the end zone and you don't get an opportunity that much. But I think our guys took pride in really doing a good job in the holdup aspect of it, cause they know if they give Kyle time to catch it, set his feet, then we got a shot. And I think the punt just kinda mishit it a bit. Most of the other punts he hit – cause he's a great directional punter – pinned us on the sideline and we didn't have an opportunity for a return, but that one, they tried to kick it back across the field and we took advantage of it. So give those guys on the whole group on the punt return team for doing a good job.
Four teams a row shutting down run game?
I think they were aggressive, I think we have some tough kids on that side of the ball, they do a really good job of not staying blocked and getting off of blocks, try and make some plays. When you have a quarterback that's not a huge run threat, we've been fortunate cause we haven't had a quarterback – now give David credit, on a key 3rd down he had him keep it and I think everybody in the stadium was on the running back and McKee was running down the sideline. For the most part, we had the ability to kind of contain Peat and keep him in front of us, and I thought our guys did a good job – we need to look at the tape – I thought our guys did a good job by and large tackling. But it's a lot easier to tackle and get guys down when you're gang tackling and I thought we had a lot of guys run to the football tonight.
Want college football in the afternoon? Affect prep or just tradition?
No, that's just me personally, but I don't share that with our guys. Our guys don't care, we'll play in a parking lot, we'll play at 2 in the morning, it really doesn't bother us. But if I had my druthers, you wake up Saturday morning, you get a little breakfast and you play football. That's the tradition of college football, that's when you always – it's a beautiful stadium, it's a great place to play, the sun was setting over their sideline. Those are the cool things that you reflect upon. And it's just my own personal deal, I don't like playing games at night cause I gotta sit around all day long. I wish we could play at 9 a.m. We get out, we train, that's when our practices are, that's when you guys are there for practice and that's our rhythm, that's our routine. But we don't worry about what we can't control, so if they tell us we've got a night game, then we play a night game, this group doesn't care, they'll play whenever. I just bitch to you guys, I don't bitch to them.
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