WATCH: Chip Kelly on UCLA Football's Injuries, Attendance Woes
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke with the media ahead of Monday morning's practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Kelly gave some updates on a few injured Bruins, broke down what he saw on film from the win over South Alabama, explained the pitfalls of trying to overanalyze Colorado's psyche and shared what he thinks has led to some record-low attendance numbers.
Martin Andrus injury?
Yeah, Martin's out. Yep, Martin's done for the season.
How crushing was that, considering what he's been through?
Yeah, it was. It's tough when dealing with a kid with an injury because of what Martin's done. He's had two ACLs, he's had a shoulder, and for him to do – to get injured again and not be able to play for the rest of the season, it just, it's crushing cause you watched him rehab. He's a sixth-year kid that came back, took advantage of the COVID year, has worked so hard and was playing really, really well for us. So in speaking to him yesterday, talking to him, he's got a great mindset and a great attitude. He's a special young man, he'll overcome this like he's overcome the other ones, but it's the fact that he doesn't get to finish the way he wanted to finish is hard and it's tough. You can't – no really words to say, I told him that yesterday, how you can put it into perspective for him, but just listening to him speak yesterday, I think he's got great resolve, he's gonna be successful in everything he does just because of the life lessons and the persistence that he has, and he's continued to develop that and lean on that. So it hurts our team, you lose a real critical member of our team up front, but you feel more just regardless of the team and the impact it has football-wise, I feel more for Martin as a person just because it's tough, but you can't control those things, it's part of the game and you gotta deal with them as they come and he's dealt with them as good as any player I've been with.
UCLA career finished?
Yeah, unless he can get a medical, I don't know that information.
A seventh year?
Yeah, I don't know. That's a – we haven't even approached or thought about that, so.
Gary Smith also left with an injury?
Yeah, Gary's out. I think Gary may try today, we'll see what he can do, but that's a day-to-day thing
TJ Harden didn't dress Saturday?
TJ didn't. TJ will practice today.
Siale Taupaki?
Siale is unavailable right now.
Michael Ezeike?
Zeke played.
He did play?
Yeah.
Zach Charbonnet banged up?
Yep, Zach's a warrior, tough kid, (???).
Film review on defensive pressure?
Yeah, you know first off, I would give Major Applewhite and their offense a really good – they did a nice job at getting the ball out of Carter's hands quickly. They ran a lot of max protections, kept the tight end in, kept the back in and did a good job from really kinda taking care of him. And I thought the quarterback was outstanding. I talked to Carter after the game, he's got a great trigger, a great mind, can reset, can get off his progression and move through pretty quickly, so a little bit of credit to them in terms of what they did, but we still have to be able to generate a better pass rush.
Faster pace and tempo determined before the game or an in-game decision?
They're all in-game decisions. I think we have weapons available to us in our toolbox, and then as the game expresses itself, you gotta – what do we rely on? You may have thought you had a predetermined set of going into the game plan, hey we wanna do this, we wanna do this, we wanna do this, hey they're giving us more of this, where do we need to morph and get into more of that. So the game expresses itself differently, sometimes you get out early because of a couple turnovers and you have a lead, and then it's a different mindset from how they're gonna defend you. Other times, you're playing from behind. So the cool part, I think, for our players and their ability to handle a lot offensively so that we have a lot of weapons that are at our disposal, then it's the decisions that are made on game day of what we need to do to win in this certain situation. And you can't predict to know going into that game that this was gonna come down to a drive and the last play with a field goal. We knew that they were a really good football team, but I'm just proud of how our guys executed. And we relied on a little tempo with that last drive, I think that was – we made two critical plays from a tempo standpoint on that last drive that gave us an opportunity to get in position for Nick to hit the game-winner. So it's a tool in our tool box. I don't think you can do anything 100% of the time, you can't be tempo all the time, you can't be slowed down all the time, you can't throw every down, you can't run every down, you really gotta let how the game itself expresses itself and then adapt as the game goes along.
Colorado AD put out a statement saying they had to do better – expectations for a team in desperation mode like that?
Yeah, I guess – and that's a good question, but we don't look at it from that perspective. We look at what is their scheme, who is their personnel. We're very analytical about what we're doing. I don't think we start to delve into what is the psyche, non-psyche, how do they feel, all those other things. I don't – I think you can spend too much time spinning our wheels trying to figure out what other people are thinking. I think it's counterproductive for you, in terms of what you do, is that you have to look at what they've put on film, they've played three games, how they're deploying their personnel, what they're doing schematically both offensively and defensively, what do they do well, what do you think they would continue to try to exploit, what has given them problems, do they clean stuff up. But I think sometimes, when you start to think, 'Hey, I think they think this' and 'They think that we think,' I think you maybe are going down a road. We have a system of our preparation that we follow all the time in terms of personnel scheme, whether it be offensively or defensively or special teams, and then kinda follow it from that. To add in to the variable of trying to figure out the psyche of the other opponent, I think you can just clutter your mind a little bit and I'm not that smart to kinda figure that stuff out, what other people are thinking. So we just kinda go based on the tape. That's the cool part about when you watch film, it's that you're not watching a TV copy where there's emotion or crowd or anything, you're just watching all-22 and trying to get a beat on can you see hand placement, can you see is the shade tighter when he's slanting, is he wider when he's taking the gap, things like that that I think are critical to your preparation than more of the what's the psyche of the opponent kind of thing.
What have you seen from Colorado?
Yeah, I think they're a little bit more four-down now, they used to be a little bit more 3-4 and they kinda morphed over the last two years into being a little bit more four-down on the defensive side of the ball. They've played three quarterbacks on the offensive side of the ball, so it's tough, a little bit, to get a beat in terms of what they're doing there. Sometimes you can get an idea of when this guy's in, they're doing this, when this guy's in, they're doing that. I think that part of it's a little bit difficult just because they kinda, you know, haven't had as much success of the offensive side of the ball so they're kinda spinning the quarterbacks a little bit. When you see three, you gotta prepare for all three, which is difficult cause they're not all the same skillset – Shrout's a little bit more of a thrower than Lewis, Lewis can hurt you with his feet and he's done it, he's played a lot of football. We played against him last year, so there's a little diversification that way. They're still trying to run the ball, I think that's what anybody is always trying to run the ball, unless you're in one of those air raid offenses and then an air raid offense is gonna throw it 70 times a game. So they're still gonna try to establish the run, they're still gonna try to beat you at the point of attack, and then they're gonna try to pass and run the quarterback off of that. So scheme-wise, we'll be preparing for that. Chris Wilson is back for his second year as the defensive coordinator, so we faced them last year, so I think we've got an understanding of what they're doing. Now they've played – it's an interesting schedule that they've played because they played Air Force in game two so they played an entirely different defense against Air Force, which most people do because of the offense that you face. So you look a little bit more at game one and the Minnesota game to see what you hope you're gonna get when you get out there on Saturday. But again, you still have to be prepared. You know, South Alabama played 3-3 stack against us in our game on Saturday and they had not shown any of that all year long and I give our players credit, they handled that pretty well. Like, alright, this isn't exactly what we prepared for Monday through Friday, but when they gave us this, 14 is usually a defensive end and rushing, now he's walking around inside as a stack guy and as a spinner, so how do we handle that? I think our kids did a good job, so they can handle it. They still have 11 guys to deploy on defense, there's only so many places they can put those guys.
Help to have Darrin Chiaverini on staff?
Yeah, but I think the offensive coordinator's changed so that he does'nt have as much insight to the offense. But I think he does have insight to personnel, so that's helped, and he's really sharp football-wise, so we've had success. We've had Drev and Clancy here when we're defending the team across town, because when those guys were here, they had some familiarity with the players. So that obviously is a bonus and it does help, but schematically, offensively, they're different than when he was running it cause they have a new coordinator in Sanford. So it's a little bit different, but he can give us some insight.
Made aware of Troy Aikman's tweet on Saturday?
Made aware of what?
Said Rose Bowl attendance was an embarrassment, even when they were No. 1 they only had 50,000 – suggested 30,000-seat on-campus stadium, but said even that would be half-filled if the team played like they did Saturday
Yeah, I didn't see that. But attendance, I think when you look at it, especially here on the West Coast, is probably relative to your opponent and really knowledge of the opponent. We opened up a year ago against Hawaii and played in front of 30, I think, and then the next week we played with 68,000 when we played LSU. People know the name of LSU. I think what's kinda lost on me is that you don't understand the South Alabama, just cause it's a regional school from the Sun Belt, but that's a good a football team as we've played in the last two years, you know, so. But they don't have great name recognition and I get that. Stanford opened up against Colgate, they had 26,000 against Colgate. Cal played Cal Davis and had 30,000. We had 29,000 the other day. And I think sometimes I think it's the name recognition of your opponent – not the level of play of your opponent, because South Alabama's a really, really good football team, it's just unfortunate. And I've been on the other side of that. When I was at New Hampshire, we played FBS programs, we went to Northwestern and played Northwestern at Northwestern and we're all excited about playing a Big Ten team and there was 20,000 people in the stands. But it's all perspective. As the opponent, we thought that was the greatest thing in the world – we had 20,000, that was the most people we played for in our entire lives. I think the year before that, we played at Rutgers and played in front of 30,000 and we thought it was unbelievable. And I'm sure both of their fanbases didn't think that it was a great crowd. Both of their fanbases weren't happy because we beat both of them, we upset both of them and we were a really good football team, but New Hampshire didn't have name recognition, but it was a really good team that put some kids in the NFL and did a really good job. I think sometimes, especially quarter schools, sometimes we've run into that, always at the beginning of the year. I talked to David, like David, I'll say it again, Colgate's first game at Stanford, 26,000 at the game. But when you don't have students on campus, that's a little bit different. So again, it's not a slight to South Alabama, it's just I don't think people really know about them. If you did know about them, that's a really good football team. I think that running back is outstanding, I thought the quarterback was a really, really good football player. And then you look at what the Sun Belt did the week before, Marshall going into Notre Dame and winning, App State going into Texas A&M and winning, Georgia Southern going into Nebraska and winning is a little more recognition, but I get that South Alabama doesn't have the name recognition of an LSU, and I think that's really where you are with it.
Expect the crowds to get bigger as the season goes on?
Yeah, I think that's always – last year, I think we opened up with our smallest crowd against Hawaii, and then we played against 68,000 against LSU and then we played against 40,000 when we played against Fresno, and then you get into league play. And I think when you're into league play, you're playing Pac-12 against Pac-12 and I think there's obviously name recognition when you're playing against your Pac-12 opponents.
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