UCLA must solve its Chip Kelly dilemma

INGLEWOOD, California – Chip Kelly officially wrapped up his sixth season as the head football coach at UCLA. Does anyone care? More importantly, do the good folks in Westwood think they deserve a better head coach now that the Bruins are moving forward to the Big Ten Conference? 

Kelly and his Bruins put a ribbon on an 8-5 season thanks to a 35-22 comeback win against Boise State in the Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk. Was that enough to save Kelly from seeing the door? 

After all, Kelly and UCLA limped into the LA Bowl after getting bashed in the team’s home finale against Cal at the Rose Bowl Stadium. 

Yes, the Bruins did beat rival USC, but the Bruins lost three of their last four games to close out the regular season. Under Kelly, UCLA underachieved. The Bruins were never good enough to sniff a Pac-12 Conference championship and produced just three winning seasons with Kelly overseeing the football program. 

If that wasn’t enough, quarterback Dante Moore, who was a five-star recruit coming out of high school, entered the transfer portal and has now committed to play ball at the University of Oregon. It seems as if Kelly and the Bruins just can’t pull it together to make the Bruins a formidable football program.  

When he was in Oregon, Kelly was considered to be revolutionary. His stint at UCLA has reduced that reputation to mediocrity. Once the 2023 college football regular season concluded, Kelly’s overall coaching mark at UCLA was a ridiculous 34-34 record. 

The Bruins’ win against Boise State gave Kelly a 35-34 edge in the win-loss column. That’s not impressive by any stretch of the imagination. The question now becomes what will Martin Jarmond, the UCLA athletic director, do? Will Jarmond hold on to Kelly a little while longer or will he get rid of him?     

The Bruins finished their 2023 college football season with a win. The Bruins came into the Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk slipping.

When the first half of the LA Bowl went into the books, it looked like UCLA might fold again and end its season on an unglamorous note. The Bruins were down at intermission to Boise State, 16-7. Things changed in the second half for the Bruins. UCLA outscored Boise State 28-6 in the second half to win the ballgame, 35-22. 

The big difference for the Bruins was the third quarter. UCLA scored 21 points in the third quarter while holding Boise State to zero points in the period. UCLA rushed for 280 yards and accounted for another 230 yards through the air to dominate the game. 

After the game, UCLA head coach Chip Kelly talked about his team’s comeback win. 

“I think our defense actually played well in the first half,” Kelly said. “We just missed a couple of tackles. They were where they were supposed to be. The runs were fit the right way. The long screen pass they had, we had a couple shots at ’em, didn’t get them down. Give credit to the running back for Boise. It was a pretty good run by him.

We felt confident, we were in the locker room at halftime, that everything that happened in the first half, it was us, missed tackles on the defense and penalties on the offensive side of the ball. We felt like if we could clean it up, we were poised to break out in the second half. And that’s what happened.

UCLA wrapped up its season with an 8-5 record. Boise State concluded its season at 8-6. Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson took ownership of his team’s loss.   

“Didn’t execute,” Danielson said. “Take full responsibility for it as a team. Defensively we didn’t execute. Offensively we couldn’t sustain drives. And then we gave up some big plays defensively, lost some of the momentum. Work to find ways to get it back and didn’t so I take full responsibility for the whole team. Gotta be better in the second half. When you’re going into the half with a lead and we’re getting the ball we gotta be better. We’ll learn a lot from it, look at the film and be better in the future for it.”

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Photo credit: Mark Hammond/News4usonline for The Bulletin