WATCH: Chip Kelly on Washington's Defensive Potential, Ted Lasso Fandom
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talked to the media Wednesday morning about what challenge Washington’s defense poses, the toughness of Ethan Fernea playing through injury and how much he loves Ted Lasso.
CHIP KELLY
Ted Lasso fan?
I am a Ted Lasso fan. if you're not a Ted Lasso fan you probably don't have a sense of humor.
Ethan Fernea toughness playing with club?
Yeah, I mean, the kid just has a passion for playing football. And we were so excited that we got the news that he had an opportunity to continue to play. He's awesome. He gives you everything he's got. He loves the game. He loves his teammates. And I think everybody was just genuinely happy for him that he gets to continue playing.
Fernea back in the running back rotation?
Yeah, it's just a matter of getting him comfortable. He didn't get cleared until really late last week, so we used in a limited room on just special teams. He's been a great special teams player for his entire career here. So now his role will start to expand back to really kind of where he was before the injury.
Jimmy Lake complimenting you like David Shaw did – what have you seen from Lake in his short time at Washington?
Yeah, I got great respect for Jimmy. He's one of the top defensive coordinators out there, and now that he's become a head coach. Obviously, we all dealt with COVID last year, but they had a little bit probably more issues than we did. But his teams are tough. I think they're really well coached. They play a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball. I think they kind of emulate his mindset and they're doing what he wants them to do. They're going to be tough and run the ball on the offensive side of the ball and play outstanding defensive. They have a lot of passion when they play football. And I think that comes from their coach. When we play the Stanford's and the Washington's of the world, then we know we're in for a battle. So we told our players this is going to like all week long.
Take gratification in what you've done when other coaches compliment your accomplishments?
I think all of us respect the people that you... You always say, 'Praise and blame is all the same,' but when it comes from somebody that you have great respect for, then it means a little bit more. I do have great respect for Jimmy, I have great respect for David. There are really good coaches in this league. I think there's a competitive nature for everybody in this league, but I think there's a lot of respect for the coaches in this league and I think it says a lot about our league.
Washington's run defense hasn't been that great...
Have you watched film? Have you watched film? Watch the film and then tell me that they're not great. You see 55? 91? 48? 94?
Statistically they haven't been great...
Statistics can get you beat. Turn the tape on, that's a really, really, really good defense. They're tough, they're physical, they get after you, I think they're really well-coached, so we've got our hands full with their defense in every facet, whether it's run or pass.
What stands out personnel-wise?
I think how hard they play and obviously I think they're always in the correct spots. Very rarely are they out of position. When you look at the big play tape against their defense, there's not a lot of clips on them cause there aren't a lot of big plays. I think they're gonna make you go the distance, they're gonna keep the ball in front of them, they tackle really, really well in space, they gang tackle really well cause everybody runs to the ball. So it's as good a defense as I've seen that we've faced this year.
Remember about going from coordinator to head coach?
Yeah, I think what you learn early is that you don't make suggestions, you make decisions and there's a lot more involved in that. When I was an assistant coach I was the smartest guy in the world, but I was just giving advice, I wasn't the one making the decision. When you have to make tough decisions, sometimes it can be pretty lonely. You take all the information you can get from the people that are stakeholders in the whole thing, but ultimately, you have to make the call and that's really the biggest difference, that you're a decision maker, you're not a suggestion guy. And I think there's a lot of responsibility that goes with that.
Preparing for noise, rain, cold?
We try to simulate it as much as we can in practice, but things that we can’t simulate, obviously we can’t simulate the rain, but we’ll do some wet ball drills and we’ll continue to do that, but you adjust and the one thing we talk to our team about is control what we can control. So we can’t control the environment, but the game is the game. The environment for them is the same environment for us so we really try not to make a big deal of it.
Additional emphasis on ball security with potential rain?
Is that opposed to we don’t emphasize when it’s dry out? We emphasize holding onto the ball all the time, it’s the same thing. We just do wet ball drills this week and that’s what we’ve been doing and will continue to do.
Seattle-based playlist?
One of the reasons that music at practice is so that you can practice auditory exclusion. I couldn’t tell you what the playlist is because I don’t pay attention to the playlist. So I don’t know if they’re playing Sinatra or grunge or whatever. You really notice it, maybe the first song that’s on, you hear it and then after that, you’re really trying to practice auditory exclusion. It’s the reason why we do it. it’s not that we’re trying to do anything more than that, it’s so that the guys can concentrate and focus on what they’re supposed to do. If it’s a third-down drill, you want to know that it’s third-and-seven, you’re not saying, hey, this is a great grunge tune. If you are saying, hey, this is a great grunge tune, then you’ve lost track of what you’re trying to get accomplished. It’s really a distraction kind of thing and I think our kids can really focus — I would imagine if you ask them the same question, they wouldn’t be able to tell you it was a grunge playset or a LA playset or whatever it is. Now, I think R-Mac has a lot of fun with it, but I haven’t noticed that part.
Dorian didn't know what music was playing when we asked Monday?
That’s reason no. 2000 that I’m really proud of Dorian. That’s what you’re trying to get. That’s the emphasis of it. When you come from the outside, oh, they play music, the reason is we’re trying to get our guys to focus and to your question earlier, how do you deal with crowd noise, you have to be able to block it out and focus on the task at hand and the task at hand is that play. So really, what you can get your focus and attention to is what we’re going to execute. But if you get caught up in the surrounding things, that’s not a benefit to anybody.
Going to be hard to get run game going if you think Washington's run defense is so good?
That’s the battle. You don’t say, hey, we looked at tape and they’re really good at this so we’re just not going to do it. We have to run the ball to be successful. We have to throw the ball and really, we want to try to be balanced in every game we play, but how the game unfolds during the course of the game is how you end up managing and calling plays. We have to execute. It still comes down to fundamentals, we have to block, they have to get off of blocks. They have to tackle, we have to break tackles, there’s a lot that is involved in it. You don’t just look at the film and say, hey, they’re good at run defense so we’re going to throw it 35,000 times in this game because they’re good at run defense. It’s how do we scheme up what they’re doing, what their certain fronts are on certain plays and try to put our players in position to make plays.
Favorite Ted Lasso character? Don't spoil anything though, Tony isn't caught up...
You haven’t finished the season? Season one or season two?
Season two
I don’t know if I’ve finished season two. I was a big fan of season one. Season two got a little whacky on me. I think they’re all good. Obviously Ted’s good. I think Beard’s hilarious. Coach Beard is a very underutilized character, so.
Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
Follow All Bruins on Twitter at @SI_AllBruins
Like All Bruins on Facebook at @SI.AllBruins
Subscribe to All Bruins on YouTube
Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports Illustrated
Read more UCLA football stories: UCLA Football on Sports Illustrated
