WATCH: Chip Kelly on Kyle Philips' Blocking, All-Around Contributions of the Staff
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly talked to the media about the Bruins’ ability to recover from a big-time win, receiver Kyle Philips’ blocking ability and the overall organization of the coaching staff.
CHIP KELLY
Kyle Philips huge blocks?
He did. And not underrated by our coaching staff, he was one of our players of the game just because of how well he blocked and takes a lot of pride in it—all of our receivers blocked really well and for us to run the ball, it takes 11 and Chase Cota, Kam, Kyle, Matt Sykes—all those guys did a really nice job in terms of helping. You know, when you can get the ball to the perimeter like we did, we’ve got to hold up on the perimeter on our blocks and I thought our receivers did a really nice job against a really talented secondary.
Kyle being undersized add to how impressive it is?
No, I mean, Kyle weighs 190 pounds, so he’s 5-11, 190 and I think he’s a really good-sized kid for that position and it’s really your want-to I think is what separates Kyle from anybody else, but I think the block he threw on Charbonnet’s play, the block he threw on the goal line for Brittain Brown’s touchdown were two huge key [can’t make word out] points of the game and that’s part of what we do—if you’re a receiver here, you’ve got to block, you can’t be a selective participant, you’ve got to be able to do everything and I think that’s what makes Kyle such a great receiver is that he will do everything—he can block, he can run routes, he can catch, he’s a great special teams player for us, he’s a great all-around football player, so.
Justin Frye and his offensive line background make receivers, tight ends better blockers too?
I’m confused. Every team in the country has an offensive line coach, so.
Him having a bigger role as offensive coordinator though?
Yeah, again, I think everybody has every role. Justin does an unbelievable job. There is not, when we go into a room, it’s not, well, this guy talks more than that guy, I mean, it’s everybody contributes whether it’s Jerry or it’s DeShaun or it’s Derek Sage or it’s Justin, everybody’s on the same page. Again, I think Justin does an unbelievable job.
Azzinaro in the booth?
Jerry’s in the booth.
Norwood on sideline making secondary calls?
No, we have one call from the defense and Jerry calls the defense.
What goes into blitz package design?
Again, our entire staff. Jerry runs the meetings and Brian, Don Pellum, Johnny Nansen, Jason Kaufusi, they all contribute to our game plan, so we have a great staff that’s very collaborative in everything they do, so there’s not one person that stands out as a dictatorship. They all come to conclusions, they all have different parts of the game plan that they present—there’s third-down packages, red-zone packages, coming-out packages, fourth-down packages, there’s a four-minute offense, there’s a two-minute offense, there’s a lot of situations that occurred in the game and everybody’s in charge of presenting that and showing what does the other team do in those situations and then collaboratively, whether it’s offensively or defensively, we sit down and as a group come up with what’s the best plan to execute this week.
You don't look at social media but fan base is giddy, how do you keep the players' heads on straight?
I think this is a mature group and as we’ve talked about as a group is that you can’t own success, it’s rented and you’ve got to pay your rent every week, you’ve got to pay your rent every day, so we’re proud of where we are right now, but we need to continue to work because 2-0 just means you’re 2-0. You can be 2-10 when it’s all said and done. I talked about it a little bit after the game is that this [time] last year, Mississippi State beat LSU in the opener and then they lost their next four games and were 1-4, so this is a great sport, just like life is, for ‘What have you done for me lately?’ so I think our group has put that game in the past and we need to move on. The good part is we have an improvement week this week and we need to get better in so many aspects of the game and then start our preparations for a really good Fresno team. You just need to turn on the tape of the Fresno State-Oregon game and know how good a football program Fresno has right now, so Kalen [DeBoer] is doing a great job with that team, they’re sound in all three phases, so that gets our attention and our guys get a chance to watch some Fresno today, so this group’s going to be focused on whatever the next challenge is.
Improve on snaps and penalties?
Yeah, two things – great point – two things we've talked about. We had the one bad snap when we were rolling a little bit there and we gotta get that corrected and there were a couple that sailed a little bit, but Dorian is such a really good athlete back there that sometimes he makes a bad snap not looking like a bad snap because he can seamlessly transition after catching it, but it's something we'll continue to work on. It's not easy to snap and block at times, and especially when you've got somebody on your head, so we'll continue to always work on that. I think Jon's done a really good job playing center for us in our first two games, so we're excited about that. And then we talk about penalties all the time, winning the penalty battle, the self-inflicted wounds. And especially when you look at the penalties, where do the hidden yards come in? They're drive extenders. Their field goal was the result of – we could've got them off the field on 3rd down, but we had a penalty. Those are things that we'll continue to harp on and we'll continue to look at if there's something that over time is consistent and we need to really address it, but we do talk about that. I think not hurting yourself in this game is a big deal and those unforced errors are things that can kind of set you back. And when you're playing really good teams, you want to be playing downhill football, not uphill football, and when you get those penalties, you're playing uphill football.
Anything else stand out in need of improvement?
Yeah, there's always some communication issues, there were a couple times guys didn't get the signals. Was it because of where we were standing, was it because the signal's similar to another signal and they got it confused? So you're always just kinda getting their feedback, that's part of what the process is when you watch tape with them – what was your thought process here and why did this occur? And then trying to fix it cause this isn't exactly the way we wanted this to look, what did you see and what did it come into you like? So you're always working through that, especially early in the season when you got some new players coming in there and we do have some new players sprinkled in. We are a veteran team, but we still have some new guys that are – Kam Brown, Zach – that weren't with us last year that are with us now, so trying to get those guys incorporated and make sure they're up to speed.
Johnny Nansen on field and in recruiting?
Yeah, Johnny's done a great job and we were really fortunate when we got a chance to get him hired when Vince left to go back to Boston College. He's been kind of a standout in the Pac-12, whether it was at Washington, was a great player at Washington State, I knew of Johnny first when I was at Oregon and he was up at Washington with Sark and the work he did at USC, so he's done a great job with our defensive line, he's done a really good job recruiting.
Bo Calvert first career sack, his journey representative of the program?
Yeah, I'm really pleased with Bo. I think he's really solidified that edge position for us into the boundary. He's just such a hard worker and the success he has is just a byproduct of his mindset and his work ethic and it's been awesome to see him grow as a person, both on and off the field. So Bo is – Bo's special and he's one of the real true leaders of this team, when he speaks, everybody on this team listens because they know how hard he works and his actions back up his words. So to see the success he's having on the field, it's a lot of fun to see that. And everything Bo's accomplished, he's earned, nothing's been given to Bo. He's just kinda got that mindset and work ethic and he's really one of the real true leaders of our defense right now.
Sam Marrazzo update?
Sam's doing good, he'll be out here running around today and then we'll see how that affects next week. But excited to see Sam continue to build and work and we're always gonna be smart and make sure we're never gonna put anyone in harm's way. But I'm excited about the trajectory Sam's heading on.
Something you saw on film that helped you expect that Dulcich TD developing?
Yeah, that was part of it. I mean, part of our game plan is we go through as coaches and some of the things we were doing in the run game and how we were in formation and people knowing that they had to overload back into the boundary to get extra people down to the tight end. And we had run that, we had run the run version of that play a couple times, so then we came back with a complimentary pass off of it, got a chance to spring him, and then he did a great job. Obviously he was open and Dorian put the ball on him, but then the run after the catch stuff that he did to stop, make the safety miss and then finish it in the end zone was just the type of player that Greg is – smart, intelligent – but he's got such a great drive to him that he wants to finish everything he starts and the best way to finish when you have the ball in your hands is in the end zone and he did it.
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