WATCH: Chip Kelly Analyzes UCLA Football's Performance Versus Rival USC
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talked to reporters before Monday’s practice, as the Bruins return from their crosstown win over USC and start preparations for Cal.
CHIP KELLY
Defense's performance in the SC game?
I thought they did a nice job. Obviously, you're challenged a little bit by the scheme that they have cause they spread you out, and I thought our defense, overall, did a good job. You've got some explosive players – Gary Bryant Jr., who's a really good player, Tahj Washington. But I thought our defense, overall, we put them in a couple precarious situations early, but I thought they responded. The Q Lake interception I think was a really big deal for us in that game, kind of stemming the tide and getting us back on track offensively, but I was pleased with them.
Otito grown as a leader?
Yeah, just a great young man. Obviously, a really good student, graduated early with an undergrad degree and he's already enrolled in grad school. But as he just, that maturation process, came here as a football-track guy and excelled at track. I think he went to the Junior PanAm games and really did well down there, I think he was an All-American as a freshman in the shot put. So he was doing a lot of different things, but now that, I think, he's 100% in football, he's really invested in, I think, his leadership skills. I think the players understand cause part of leading, first, is just leading by example. They see the job done the way that he does in the weight room, on the practice field but in the classroom. He's everything you want in a student-athlete. So he's not an overly vociferous kid, but when he talks, everybody listens because they know he's got something – he's a guy who's substantive, when he says something, he means it. So he's done a really nice job and you can tell how much players gravitate to him cause he does things the right way all the time.
Work ethic honing his craft on the field?
Yeah, he's really dialed into that, he wants to be great. He wants to be great in everything he does – he wants to be great in the classroom, he wants to be great on the football field, he wants to be great in the kitchen, he's a heck of a cook from what everybody talks about. I think he just takes everything really seriously and really wants to perfect it, and it shows. You watch his work ethic, his attention to detail, especially out here at practice sessions, it rubs off. He's really grown into that leadership role.
Eaten any of his food before?
He has some – he usually brings in snacks for the trainers. He's smart, cause the guys who take care of him the most, he takes care of our training room pretty good. So I've had some of his desserts, but I've not had a sitdown meal from Otito.
Planning team Thanksgiving dinner?
Yeah, well one of the things that unique about this place, cause everybody's local, most of our kids will go home, some of them will take some of their teammates with them, so we're just trying to get a number of who we're gonna have a team meal with, but it's important for our kids. Usually, we will practice earlier on Thursday and then let our kids – especially the local kids – go home and spend Thanksgiving with their family. And a lot of them bring their teammates home with them, but from whoever's still around on campus, we'll have a meal planned for those guys.
Think your pressure would get home as much as it did?
I mean, you don't know how any game is gonna play out going into it. You don't go into games saying 'I think we've got 10 sacks in us.' It really depends on how the game expresses itself over the course of time. But we knew it was a young quarterback, and a really talented quarterback, but we had to disrupt the timing. We had to disrupt the timing of that offense, that's the one thing about playing the air raid offense is if you can disrupt the timing, get the quarterback off his launch point, disrupt the receivers a little bit, make the quarterback hold the ball a little longer so then the rush can get home and I think our guys accomplished that. That's what our plan was going in, the exact numbers that it turned out to be, we couldn't predict that part of it, but we knew really we had to affect the timing of that offense, and I thought we did.
Agent working on extension?
Yeah, my agent handles everything, so I don't worry about it. My day-to-day is getting ready for Cal. We always talk about mental toughness is the ability to move onto the next most important thing, and the next most important thing for us is playing Cal. A good Cal team that played really well against Stanford. So that's all of what our attention is on, that other stuff, that's the reason you have an agent, so I'll let him work on all that stuff.
Do you want an extension?
Yeah, I love coaching here.
Update on Brittain Brown?
Brittain will practice this week, we'll see how he is. He was close on Saturday, but we're not gonna put him in a harmful situation, so we'll see how he progresses. I know he really wants to play, he really wanted to play on Saturday, but we'll see how that goes. But I wouldn't put anything past Brit, he's a very, very tough individual.
Mitchell Agude's performance?
I thought a couple guys, Mitch and Otito up front, and Bo, really, we thought played the best games maybe to date this season and then in the back end, Q Lake and Jay Shaw and Cam Johnson played really, really well for us on the back end. So I think it was a combination. When you play team defense, we’re close to our receivers and really good in coverage and disrupt the timing of our routes, then sometimes it gets the rush get home in time and other times, the rush gets home a little bit before so it helps the back end in terms of coverage. But I thought Mitch did a really nice job of disrupting things up front. I think the numbers showed — in terms of what his numbers turned out in that game but he’s another guy that I still think is continuing to improve. We had a shortened COVID year with him which was his first year here and then this season. So I think each week, he gets a little bit better, little bit better so I’m excited about the trajectory he’s heading in.
Zach Charbonnet impact this year with 1,000 yards now?
Yeah, you know, at first, it starts with his work ethic. He’s an amazingly consistent human being in terms of his approach every single day. You’ve never — we’ve only seen one. And it’s full speed ahead. He’s extremely coachable. You don’t have to correct him more than once and he gets it. And then never makes the same mistake twice. But he gets strong as games go along. I think he’s stronger now at this point in time than any point in time but it goes back to his work ethic. His work ethic is just kind of off the charts and he’s getting out of it exactly what he puts into it and what he’s putting into it is a ton and we’re starting to see the production. With him, we’ve seen it all year long, it’s just been a consistent approach with him and it’s really fun to coach guys like that.
Kazmeir Allen's impact on special teams and offense?
Yeah, obviously as he continues to develop, he’s a threat. He’s fifth in the country now in kickoff returns and obviously he was a deep threat for us on Saturday. We felt like we had a couple things conceptually that we could get over the top on them and he did and got home with it. But he practiced a lot at running back last week because with Britt being down, our depth behind Zach was going to be tested a little bit. So he got a lot more reps actually at running back last week than he did at receiver. For him to come out and do that — we had a couple play calls that we had in, we felt like if we had him isolated in the slot, once we beat them over the top on the first touchdown and then the other time, we were in a bunch, the formation, and he did a really good job of running a sprint post over the top of everybody and out-running everybody but he’s such a weapon with everything that he does. He’s another guy who continues to grow every week, gets better and better and better. Really happy for him because of what he’s put in and he’s starting to see it show up: that performance on Saturday with three touchdowns, 200 all-purpose yards is pretty special.
Plans for UCLA-Gonzaga basketball game?
I didn’t even know they were playing.
Final Four rematch?
That’s the first I even knew about it. We’re in a submarine, my friend. So we’re getting ready for Cal. If Mick’s playing, I’ll text him. If they’re playing — do they play tonight too?
Yes, Bellarmine tonight
Bellarmine? Then Gonzaga?
Yes, back-to-back
In a back to back. Not home right?
Both games in Vegas
Alright. I’ll have to hit Mick up. I’ll text him. We were texting after the game on Saturday so I’ll hit Mick up to see where he is but we haven’t made any plans for any watch parties or anything like that. I watched the last Gonzaga game in person so I don’t think I’ll be able to get to this one. So.
He was texting you?
Yeah, almost all of our coaches were. So I think when you beat the team across town, everybody kind of gets excited about that. So you hear from him and Adam Wright, John Savage and Cori Close. The coaches here are pretty close and we know if any of our teams play their teams, it’s a big deal for the coaches here so they’re all as pleased as I am when we get an opportunity to play those guys and beat them.
Is the Victory Bell here now?
I don’t even know. [SCOTT: Yes, we have the bell] Do we have the bell? I don’t even know where the bell is. [SCOTT: Yes. We’re painting it today] I’m absent on that one. I don’t know where it is. We don’t get to see it as much as everybody else.
Get to see it get painted?
I don’t even know. Where they do they do it? [SCOTT: We’re doing it today] During the basketball game? [SCOTT: No, we’ll do it here today] Because I won’t be at the Gonzaga watch party. [SCOTT: I’ll make sure everybody here gets a video of it] We’ll get the video of it. We got some work to do. We have Cal. So our focus is 100% on playing Cal and if you want to know anything about Cal just watch what they did in the Stanford game, it was impressive. Especially with what Justin’s group has been through. They had a game the week before suspended — or postponed — against USC because of a COVID outbreak on their team and they hadn’t practiced but to come out, it was a really impressive performance. It was 600-plus yards of offense, I think 350 rushing. So that’s got our sole focus and attention now so that’s really what our mindset’s been on since Saturday.
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