WATCH: Chip Kelly on UCLA's Defense, Zach Charbonnet's Status

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke with the media ahead of Monday morning's practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Kelly talked about Zach Charbonnet's health coming off his DNP on Saturday, what he saw on film from the Bruins' defense, how to keep running backs fresh through practice and games, Dorian Thompson-Robinson's hurdling, another late kickoff time against Arizona and what it took to rush for 400 yards against Arizona State.

Going to have to do anything different with the weather today?

No. I think we can put up with a little mist, we're fine.

Will Zach be able to practice today?

We'll see what he can do today, so.

Feeling any different?

Yeah, he said he feels better, so we're gonna see what he can do today.

Bill McGovern back today?

Billy's in the office, but won't be on the field.

Devin Kirkwood?

Devin's unavailable today.

What stood out defensively on film?

I think missed tackles. You know, I talked to it a little bit after the game, but I think the amount of missed tackles we had, we gotta do a better job in open spaces. They checked a lot of balls down, their running back was their leading receiver coming in, continued when he was their leading receiver in the game. Our ability to rally and make tackles on him in open spaces – give him credit, he was shifty kid in the open field – but we gotta do a better job as a group. Part of that is gang tackling, getting more than one guy to the ball so it's not just one guy making a tackle in the open field. When we are in the open field, we still gotta move back to our fundamentals, sink our hips, bend our knees and keep our eyes up, that could have negated a lot of the game. So there weren't a lot of X plays on their offense, it was a lot of checking the ball down to the back, throw the ball underneath, and let those guys run for plays. So just gotta do a better job of fundamental tackling.

More of an emphasis on that in practice this week?

No, cause it's the same every week, it's not like we didn't tackle last week. So I just think our players, when they're put in that situation, have to be conscious of really concentrating and using their fundamentals when they get in those situations.

How can you increase the longevity of a running back at the college level, especially if they're trying to go pro?

You could put him in a plastic bubble and then play him, but I don't know if they'll ever get – it's part of the game for everybody. You have to – to get better at the game, you have to play the game, but there's also a toll that takes on you, so you're conscious of that, just so you get through an entire season with a player. It really depends on the individual and what he can handle and what he can't. There's some guys that can kinda strap the team on their back and they handle it really well, where other guys, they're 5-to-10 snap a game guys. Just depends on the individual.

Amount of full-contact drills in practice stayed the same over the past few years?

Yeah, we don't tackle in practice, so there's nothing that I think any of our running backs – there's no wear and tear when they practice. We practice just like they practice in the NFL, there's no practicing, we're not taking anybody to the ground, so there's not wear and tear on them from a practice standpoint. It's just about timing, getting the timing down of everything, that's what the practice is, what the focus is on each week when it comes to offensive execution.

Load management in practice?

Yeah, we use that all the time. We monitor our players on a daily basis. So we'll pull guys out of practice based on how many high-speed yards they've accumulated during the course of practice and that's all charted, in terms of everywhere we are. There's times when all the – you'll get to the third team period and all the strength coaches – cause we chart our guys in real time. We don't come in after practice and say, 'Ben had a lot of yards today.' We'll know his max, we know every player's max high-speed yard output he's supposed to be at in a practice setting. And to the point where if they don't get it in practice, we'll get it after practice, but if they did get it during practice, then we shut them down when they get that number of yardage.

Any discussions with Dorian to stop hurdling?

Yeah, those discussions have happened, but I think he's an instinctive football player that sometimes it's benefited him – you look at what he did the other night, you look at the SC game, there's certain times. But there's other times, I think there's times – it really depends on how people are deploying their tackling on their sustainability – are there people diving at people's legs, and it's a weapon that somebody on the offensive side of the ball has to use. Zeke had one in the Colorado game, someone went low on him and he hurdled over a kid. It's probably, people notice it more just because it's not the norm, but I think we always talk to our quarterbacks all the time about protecting themselves. So I think Dorian's done a better job this year than any other year. We talk about getting first downs, touchdowns, get down. He ran out of bounds a lot on Saturday, even though he ran for over 100 yards. But trying not to take that big hit is a big thing, cause availability is one of the best qualities you can have in a quarterback.

Talk with the team about the chipiness?

Yep, we talked about that. I think you have to – it's a game of emotion, and you have to play the game with emotion, but you can't let emotion play with you. I think some kids learned some valuable lessons on Saturday and we'll continue to do that because when it carries into a penalty situation, and it hurts the football team, then it's not beneficial to anybody. So we talk about you have to respond to things that happen in every game, and competitors respond, noncompetitors react. You can't be reactive during a football game, you have to respond if something happens on the football field.

Another 7:30 kickoff this week?

'Pac-12 in the Dark,' that's the hashtag. We find out six days – we don't know when we're playing, so we're in the dark then. And then we play at night, so we're in the dark there. So #Pac12InTheDark.

World conspiring against you with three in a row?

No, I mean, that's just the slate. Those are the TV contracts that they signed a long time ago, it's got nothing to do with George and his group. Again, the biggest thing for me is we don't care what time we play, it's just the exposure. We had a team run for 400 yards last Saturday night and no one knows about it. If a tree falls in the woods and no one's there to see it, does it make a noise? So I just hope that – we've got a good football team and I hope people get a chance to see us play.

Appreciated the crowds getting progressively bigger at the Rose Bowl?

We do appreciate that. You know, I think it's a little bit difficult of a situation, being on the quarter system cause the students aren't on campus in the first part of the year. We did play all of our nonconference games at home, but I think as the students have gotten back on campus, it's been a great atmosphere up there. We're hoping for much of the same this Saturday against Arizona.

How does Kaz Allen continue to prove his value to this team?

Um, Kaz has got great versatility. I think his ability to be a returner, a receiver and a running back and his ability to seamlessly kinda transition between the three right now, he's done a really, really good job, and that's – we put a lot on his plate, but I think that's because Kaz can handle it. So when we found out that Zach wasn't gonna go, alright we have to throw Kaz in there cause Keegan was a little banged up. Keegan was a warrior on Saturday, so it was a luxury that we were fortunate to have where we could take a receiver and move him to the backfield. But he started as a running back, so it's a transition that I think he's handled – he's handling all three spots really, really well right now.

Will he see him at running back again in the future?

Yeah. Yeah.

Will he practice at running back today?

He practices at both anyways, so he goes back and forth depending on what we have scripted play-wise. So DeShaun and Jerry just work that out, we need him here, he's playing here on this play. So we've been doing that for a while, so that wasn't his first time getting reps there at running back. He got more extensive reps because Zach was out. You know, he had the long run in the Stanford game from the running back spot, so he's done that earlier in the year for us.

Lose your starting running back and then you run for 400 yards?

Yeah, I think it's a credit to our depth from a skill position standpoint. The fact that you have a quarterback that can add to that rushing, but really what our guys did up front. I thought our offensive line and tight ends played really, really well. They understood it was a challenge. When you lose somebody like Zach, that's a big blow to your football team. But for our guys to respond – that's why I talk about competitors respond, I think our offense, guys on the offensive side of the ball, really responded when they knew that Zach wasn't gonna play after warmups and what are we gonna do. I think Kaz stepped up, Keegan stepped up, Dorian stepped up, I think our whole offensive line and the tight end room stepped up.

How unique was it for you in your history?

Well, we went to Arizona State three years ago and were told in warmups that Josh Kelley wasn't gonna play, so we've kinda been through that with the same group. We didn't run for 400 yards in that game, we were productive on offense, but not as productive as we were last night.

Back in your Oregon days?

Back in the Oregon days, we would just rotate running backs. We had some great ones – LaMichael, Kenjon, De'Anthony. We had a lot of really good running backs there, had some good depth. But I don't remember a scenario like that. There could have been, but I don't really look back like that, so I can't recall exactly, so.

This weather remind you of Eugene?

Yeah, I like this weather, it's nice. We get too comfortable sometimes in Southern California, weather-wise, so I told our guys I was excited that we have this. Have this for a couple days and get their focus on what the focus is. We can't control the weather, so let's not worry about it. Let's focus on having a really good Monday, so this is a good change of pace for us, so. When Scott can't handle it, I'm really worried about Scott with this whole situation.

Kamala Harris is on campus today – any players who are politically-inclined?

There's a lot. I did not know the vice president of the United States was on campus today, but there are a lot of our players that are politically inclined. So this is our first time – she'll be right there?

She's right there

Cool. I'm sure we'll be done early at 11, a little bit earlier than that, so we'll have the rest of the day to kinda take that in. Is she speaking today? What time?

Soon, it seems like

Ok. Well, they'll be out in an hour. We cut this short, we can get out even earlier.

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