(News4usonline) – One of the things about a Chip Kelly football team is consistency. So far, so good for the UCLA Bruins. This season, the Bruins have been a model of consistency, on offense and defense. UCLA went out and flexed their consistent muscles against the Utah Utes, the preseason favorites picked by the media to win the Pac-12 Conference.
Kelly and the Bruins smashed those chances by coming away with an impressive 42-32 win against the Utes at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.
“I think they had a great week of training,” Kelly said about his ballclub’s win. “They understand that how you train during the week is how you play on Saturday. These guys have really started to figure that out. We had confidence going into the game. Our confidence was based on demonstrated ability.
Kelly continued, “They trained at a really high level this week, and when you are playing six games into the season and it’s your best week of training, those are the results. The tough thing is that you can’t replicate that every week, or at least, that’s the challenge. So those guys have got to understand that. I told them that if you fall in love with the process, the process will love you back. And that is what was on display tonight.”
Just like in last week’s big win against the Washington Huskies, then the No.15 team in the country, Kelly and UCLA took down another top-tier opponent in Utah. The Utes came into the nationally-televised game ranked No. 11.
The Bruins at No. 18, had to put on another show to impress folks that they are the real deal, and not some Pac-12 Conference scrub or something.
“I definitely wanted this one,” UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson said. “We all know the history between UCLA and Utah, haven’t beat time since 2016, the point differential has been crazy. So we knew the beast at hand coming in here, and I think my boys went out there and went to work, baby. It was a proud moment for me to see, for sure.”
Attitude goes a long way in football. The Bruins have played with an attitude all season long. That chip on their shoulders has served them well as the Bruins have laced one impressive win after another.
Beating both Washington and Utah in back-to-back games will likely turn more than a few heads toward UCLA’s way. That means giving the Bruins their proper due as one of only two undefeated teams in the Pac-12. It also means giving Thompson-Robinson, after going off for 299 yards and four touchdowns against Utah, some respect as well.
His four touchdowns against the Utes mark the third time he has passed for at least three scores in a game. Thompson-Robinson also passed Brett Hundley as the school’s all-time career leader in touchdown passes thrown.
“It’s pretty cool for what Dorian has done,” Kelly said. “The work that he has put in, I think that people don’t realize if you don’t see him on a daily basis. How important being good is, it just takes a lot for a quarterback. There is way more than just films and meetings and all those other things. There is so much work that you have to do.”
“He has invested a ton in himself and he’s reaping the rewards of that,” Kelly added. “Really happy for him, seeing how he has grown as a person and grown as a leader. It’s cool to watch. It is well-deserved. When you start to think about the quarterbacks and the history of UCLA – that is pretty cool just to be on. So I’m really happy for Dorian and it is well-deserved.”
Thompson-Robinson is in a good place right now. With a question posed to him after taking over the top mark for most touchdown passes thrown in school history, Thompson-Robinson put the onus on being part of the Bruins football program above everything else.
“It’s great to have my name there, but I think the thing that’s made me the most emotional right now is seeing how happy my guys in my locker room were for me,” Thompson-Robinson said. “The coaching staff, everybody that’s been here since I was a freshman, just re-thinking all the hard times I went through. All the bickering back-and-forth, the transitioning going on throughout the program, again I just can’t say how thankful I am and how grateful I am to be on this team right now.”
Dennis has covered politics, crime, race, social justice, sports, and entertainment. His work as a reporter has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Daily Breeze, Daily Press, AFRO, Los Angeles Sentinel, and Los Angeles Wave. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the editor and publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper.