WATCH: Chip Kelly on UCLA's Improvement Week, NIL Collectives
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UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke to reporters Wednesday morning ahead of his team’s practice session. Kelly talked about what he was planned for the Bruins' bye week, linebacker Kain Medrano's return from injury, Mo Osling stepping up after Stephan Blaylock was ejected against Utah, the infrastructure of NIL collectives and how they are impacting recruiting and what the nearly two dozen graduate students on the roster bring to the table.
Areas you're targeting for improvement week?
Tackling, blocking, ball reception, ball placement, handoffs, everything. Fundamentals – the game of football's a game of fundamentals, so everything that you need to do, you're never gonna get complacent when it comes to the fundamental aspect of football. So it's the same thing we do every day, just teaching progression, what's our teaching progression. It's not gameplan specific, it's how do we just get better at the individual fundamentals that we have to continue to work on to be a better football team going into the second half of the season.
Identify those on film or do you do them anyways?
No, it's what we do, we do those all the time anyways. So I think sometimes you get a little more caught up in scheme as you get into the individual weeks, but you gotta make sure that you take care of your fundamentals and because we don't have a game this week, we can really focus in on, hone in on the fundamental part of it.
Have false starts been a problem?
We've had two or three, I think, so those need to be corrected. But I wouldn't say it's a problem, but anytime you get one, that's a problem, so we've had more than one, so.
Charbonnet work on his leadership skills?
Yeah, I think Zach's been an outstanding leader for our team. I think our players really gravitate to him cause the first part of leadership is you have to be able to walk the walk first, before you can talk the talk, and that's what Zach does. I mean, he's got a work ethic that's of the charts, his dedication to the film room, his dedication to the meeting room, his dedication to the weight room, I think, is unmatched. When you watch out on the field when he says something or grabs a young player and kinda pulls them aside and tells them something, they obviously listen cause of his work ethic and what he does on a daily basis.
Same schedule plan as normal with an improvement week? Any Oregon prep mixed in?
Not really, no.
How many practices this week?
Today and Friday, and then we're out on Monday. We're off on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday.
Kain Medrano debuted against Utah?
Just it was good to have him back, adding some depth at the linebacker position. We were a little thin there having Kain out, but he can play both Sam and Will for us, so he's played multiple positions for us so adds a lot of depth and did play both on Saturday, played Sam and Will for us. So it was just good to have him back out there. He's worked extremely hard in his rehab to get himself back out and so to finally see him back on the field, I was happy for him.
Where have you seen the biggest growth in Dorian's game?
I've seen growth in everything, that's the great thing about Dorian. He's a lifelong learner and he wants to get better on a daily basis, whether it's his throwing mechanics, whether it's his understanding of a scheme, whether it's fundamentals of handing the football off, fundamentals of carrying a fakeout, so he's always trying to constantly improve and that's the fun part of coaching him.
Mo Osling's tackling?
Yeah, Mo had a really good game against Utah, especially losing Blay early. Mo and Blay are our two leaders back there and I think he did a great job of tackling from the free safety position. Obviously, sometimes that's the last line of defense for you, but I think he's had an outstanding year so far and continues to improve. I think the cool thing about Mo is he's gotten better in each week. There's been improvement from game one to game six, so we hope that continues as we move forward here into the second half of the season.
JonJon Vaughns available?
JonJon's available.
Caleb Wilson tweeting about NIL collectives, says other schools are willing to pay?
Collectives have nothing to do with us, so I can't have a collective. Football, the coaches, the administration here, the collectives are all outside of the university. So that's something that if Caleb wants to do that, then Caleb's an awesome representative of this program. I loved coaching Caleb, he's got a personality to him, he's got a work ethic to him. Obviously he made himself into an NFL football player and I think whatever Caleb chooses to do, he's gonna be successful at. But I'm a big fan of Caleb.
Feel that the football program is positioned where it needs to be for NIL? More work to be done?
Again, I don't have any – I don't control NIL, so my position with NIL has nothing to do with our football program. So if there are some programs that have more active boosters, then there are some programs that have more active boosters, but that's nothing that the universities are involved in, so.
Noticed it as an issue in recruiting when talking to high schoolers?
That people have weaponized NIL?
Yeah
I think everybody's noticed that, but according to the NCAA rules, you cannot have pay for play, so I'm just curious to see how that actually works.
Carl Jones' character?
Yeah, Carl's one of our true leaders on our whole football team. I think when Carl talks, people listen. He's an asset to this university, just how he carries himself and what he does on a daily basis. Great young man to be around and I think anybody here would tell you they're a huge Carl Jones fan. We're just so excited that he's part of helping as a leader, and he really leads from the front. Carl's there, he's first in every drill, he's first in everything he does. He's a great representative in the community also, does a lot of work from the community aspect of things. He's a great leader in the weight room, he's a great leader in the classroom, so one of the reasons we're as successful as we are right now is because of Carl.
Ezavier Staples still with the program?
Nope, he's not here right now, not with us this semester. He's in school.
No Oregon prep yet but scout team out here today? What's the discrepancy there?
That's a good discrepancy, I'm not sure about that one. I'll ask them, though. Some of our guys like to jump the gun, so.
Does a player's level of education affect how they approach the game?
Good question, I've never thought of it that way. Um, no, cause I've had some freshmen that have been unbelievable when it comes to approaching football, so I don't think there's a singular one thing that makes you have that acumen in football. There are some kids that have it and there are other kids I think that are off the charts smart in school and in the academic part of things, but sometimes the football doesn't come as easy to them. But the one thing it tells me is that these kids have made a commitment, they've made a commitment to get they're undergraduate degree and now they want to continue to further their career, so I think their mindset is what I'm really impressed with, but I don't think there's a correlation between you're in grad school and how that helps you in the meeting room from a football standpoint, but it does from a work ethic standpoint.
Impact on studying the playbook, how quickly they can pick up on things?
No. I mean, cause some kids it takes longer, but they're just great studiers and they're gonna work at it and grind it out, when other kids, some kids never take a note, never do anything and we go out on the field and they know absolutely everything, so.
Having guys like Zach and Dorian for continuity, what has that done for...
Well Zach's a transfer.
Well but in terms of – I mean, Zach Charbonnet.
Yeah, he's a transfer.
Been here for, you know...
Yeah, I mean, any time there's continuity, that's beneficial, but you also can't use the excuse there 'Well, this guy's only been there one year, so there is no continuity.' I think one of the things with our transfers, you look at Raiqwon, who really has been a seamless transition fitting in with our O-line, Jake Bobo, same thing at inside linebacker – I mean, wide receiver – Darius at inside linebacker. We've had some guys come in and the cool part about them is they seem like they've been here a long time and even though they've only been here, this is their first season that they're playing with us, I think the fact that both Jake and Darius got an opportunity to get here for spring ball gave them the opportunity to really jump in full force and become the leaders that they are at their respective positions. So again, there's not a magic formula that if someone's here for a long time, they actually get it, or someone just got here for a little while, they're not gonna get it. I think it really depends on the individual.
Pass rush has been a big part of your success – what has Ikaika brought that maybe wasn't here in previous years?
Latu. The Murphy twins. You know, Ikaika was critical in recruiting all three of those guys, so he's a great recruiter, but he also is a really, really good teacher. I think he's added a lot from that standpoint, but a lot of it is still personnel driven and I think we've got some personnel out there that has really done an outstanding job. But Ikaika's a really good teacher when it comes to pass rush skills and movements. But it's always easier to be a better coach when you have better players to work with.
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