WATCH: Chip Kelly on UCLA-Washington, Containing Husky Offense
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UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spoke to the media ahead of the team's Tuesday morning practice session at the Wasserman Football Center. Kelly talked about the key matchups for Friday's game against Washington, how the Bruins' tall cornerbacks can disrupt their passing game, the receivers who could cause the defense problems, the connection between Michael Penix Jr. and Kalen DeBoer and how the transfer portal could be impacting turnarounds for new coaches.
Big challenge for the whole team, but big challenge for the defense – confidence they can rise to the challenge? What do they need to do to help win the game?
Yeah, that’s the big matchup. Obviously, their quarterback has thrown for more yards than anybody in the country, they’ve got three outstanding receivers, it’s a really good scheme, Kalen’s done a nice job everywhere he’s been with that scheme, so that’s really I think from a defensive perspective is our ability to disrupt their passing game and keep them off track, so that’s going to be the challenge.
John Humphrey's growth over the past few years?
Yeah, John’s continued to get better every single year. He has a tremendous work ethic and you always see him out here on the field working on individual skills, just has a great mindset when it comes to getting better on a daily basis. You know, he’s a tall, long corner, plays physical for us on the perimeter and the more snaps he gets, the better he gets so really happy with where John is right now and we’ll continue to see him grow.
Length of the secondary help against a team like Washington?
Well, you’re playing some big receiver and Penix is really accurate with the ball but does throw it up sometimes and their receivers do a great job of going to get it, so there’s going to be some contested plays and you hope when you have some size and some length that you can compete with those balls that are thrown up [inaudible].
Difficult to come in as a new coach with a transfer quarterback and hit the ground running so well?
Well, they’ve played in the same system, I think it’s a little bit different, it’s not that they took a transfer quarterback that they had no—you know, Kalen and Penix have a history together, they were at Indiana together before, so I think it’s a little bit different than a normal, you know, taking a kid that wasn’t in the portal and bringing him to the portal, I think he’s got a pretty good grasp of that system because he played in it before.
Look back at some of that film with those two and the relationship, history they have?
We’ve looked at the Fresno and the Washington stuff.
What do their three top receivers present as far as challenges individually?
Well, they’re all tall and long and each guy seems like, in different games each guy has been the standout guy so I think it depends on what you do coverage-wise—Penix is really good at figuring out what the matchup is and what the matchup is they want to exploit, so very rarely do you go into a game where there’s three really outstanding wide receivers and that’s the big thing, usually sometimes it’s always slanted—hey, this guy gets the most targets and then it drops off after that. This week, it seems like it’s been a week to week thing, who’s been the guy that’s stepped up for them, who’s been the featured guy, so you just can’t focus and concentrate on just one guy on the perimeter, you have to focus on all three of those guys.
Is the tranafer portal accelerating turnarounds like we're seeing at Washington?
I don’t, I think you can look at one-offs and say it does and then you look at it the other way and say it doesn’t, so I don’t think there’s enough data or history on that to say that’s what the reason is, so.
Dovid Magna key after losing interior defensive linemen?
Yeah, Dovid’s been great and really happy for him, he's worked extremely hard since he’s been here, you know, that’s kind of the common theme with all of our guys, they’ve got a tremendous work ethic so Dovid’s getting out of everything that he puts into it and I think you’re starting to see that, I thought he really showed up in the Colorado game, he’s a big, strong physical guy that works extremely hard and he’s been a little bit of a presence in there for us.
Gabriel Murphy does not have to sit out the first half?
No because he went down in the first half, so.
Jay Toia good to go now?
We’ll see what he can do today.
Update on Kain Medrano?
Yeah, Kain’s running around today.
Gary Smith?
We’ll see what Gary can do today also.
Jon Gaines?
Gaines is practicing.
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