UCLA 2020 Signing Day with Chip Kelly

On the UCLA edition of the 2020 Inside Pac-12 Football Signing Day Special, Pac-12 Networks’ Mike Yam & Yogi Roth interview UCLA head coach Chip Kelly on the highlights of the Bruins recruiting class.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Oh, it's signing day, dejavu two point h However, you wanted
to describe to welcome inside of SanFrancisco Studios, UCLA is the focus,
Mike Hamm and Yogi Roth with youwere going to hear from the head coach
Chip Kelly in just a moment here. You were telling me before we started
that you felt really good about thisclass, in particular for the Bruins little
added depth here on a roster thatwas pretty young a season ago. Yeah,

(00:32):
they did it creatively. I mean, this is a program that you
know, it's a complete rebuilt forChip Kelly. Like it doesn't just happen
overnight just because you're in Los Angelesaround Good high school. So they've had
to really build this thing. AndI think this is their best class.
They got linebackers coming out of highschool JC level that I think will play,
They have receivers that will play,They have competitive depth with makes the
entire environment much better. So I'mexcited for this team and for the potential

(00:55):
of them going forward with all thereturners that played as true freshman two years
ago. Last year. All right, we'll get a closer look from the
head coach Ship Kelly who joins usright now, Coach, I don't know,
you want to just tell me whatyou told me a couple weeks ago,
or actually, you know what,coach, I want to start with
something positive about a guy that's notgoing to be playing for you, because
I happened to notice and had anopportunity to talk to Josh Kelly coming off
the Senior Bowl. It seems likethe more and more NFL personnel out there

(01:19):
that got their eyes on him,he just continues to rise up draft boards.
You've got enough close and personal.Look. I think your quote to
me at media day was he hasa smile that you can hear. He
is still one of my favorite athletesthat we've had in the conference. What
do you have You had an opportunityto talk to him off of that Senior
Bowl. Just literally he's on ourpractice field right now running. I mean,
that's just what he is. Oh, with a smile, with a

(01:42):
smile, I mean, I know. I knew both staffs, the Detroit
Lions staff Mattie Patricia and the Bengalstaff with Zach Taylor, and they both
remarked about what a great young manhe is. And that's everything about Josh
that we all have known the guysthat have been around him, but then
when you actually see the skill sethe as as a football party really impressed
some people that way. So,um, I think he may be surprising
some people, but to the peoplethat have met him, like you and

(02:05):
Yogi and myself, that he's notsurprising any of us. Love that,
all right, not surprising Anybody's JonathanVaughns. In terms of visibility, you
guys signed him earlier today. Howdid you get to know this young man
at a position where he might beable to impact early for you guys.
Yeah, you know, he's alocal kid from Pasadena, and um,
the great part about I mean nothe's from past anybody played at Bosco.

(02:30):
Um, he's a great baseball player. He's gonna play both sports here.
Um, you know. So Ithink John Savage loved him. He's one
of the top one hundred baseball playersin the country. But he's a tough,
hard nosed, physical player, canplay in space, but he plays
a safety like a linebacker. Wewere really really excited to get both him
and Jake Newman added to our secondaryout of Bosco. Yeah, Jake Newman

(02:51):
remind me of Chase Hansen, youknow, former safety at Utah. Just
a guy that seems to do everythingfor you. When when you try to
identify defensive players typically, what aresome of the key attributes you want for
guys that are going to be aroundthe ball like him. The one thing
that you know struck out, Imean stuck out when we looked at Jake
on tape is I think everybody saidthe same thing. He's just a football

(03:12):
player, you know, and youfigure out he can play deep center field,
he can play up close to theline of scrimmage as you're seeing right
now. He comes from a footballfamily as brother plays at Colorado. His
dad was a great player back inthe day. So we were really really
excited to add to him and puthim in John John who both play that
highbred safety and move them all aroundtype of things. I think in this

(03:34):
day and age or more people aregoing to the spread you're you're getting you
gotta get more speed on the field, but you also have to have guys
that can line up and tackle,and I think both those guys can do
that. Coach, when we wereon campus and we watched your football team,
you kept hammering home at this pointand it was obvious too, just
when you look at the roster,the amount of youth and inexperience that you've
had on the football field. Whenyou guys and you and your staff go
and recruit and get ready for signingday and you're evaluating players, is the

(04:00):
thought about, hey, how doesa guy help us immediately? Or is
it a little bit more projection,because I kind of imagine it's a little
bit of a hard balance between arebuild and wanting to win right now.
Yeah, we're always want kids thatcan play right away. You know,
you don't look at anybody in thisday and age and say, three years
down the road, I think he'sgoing to be a really good football player.
Now, he may not be ableto contribute as a starter in the

(04:20):
first in the first season, butKenny playing, Kenny had competitive depth to
you, and I think that's whatwe look at. So all the kids
that we recruited, you know,six weeks ago on the eighteenth that we
signed them, we hope all ofthem can come in here and play.
And one kid's going to surprise theheck OUTI and then another kid's going to
be a little bit not what youthought he was. But that's what the

(04:40):
recruiting process is all about. Butthe twenty kids that we signed, you
know, the eighteen high school kidsand the two JC kids, we hope
all of them can play for us, and if they can, then then
they make us a better football team. Immediate league getting better. I think
from the midyear standpoint, some guysare already there on campus. Yeah,
I like when they get there,and I'm sure they have really high sta
stands for themselves like you do forthem. But it's also an adjustment going

(05:02):
to the academic institution, which isUCLA. Sure, you know, we're
real conscious of them coming in andfitting in. We have six players that
enrolled early in January and they're alldoing a really good job. We were
out on the field with them thismorning. That's where I said. We
were in a staff meeting at sevenbefore we get out for seven thirty workouts,
and I think one of our coachessaid, is today the signing day?
And I was like, well,I think so. I mean,

(05:24):
I don't really. We signed themall in December, but the six guys
that we have now, we'll havetwo more enrolled because we're on the quarter
system. In that first week ofApril. So we're excited about getting all
those kids here because when August rollsaround and it's our first fall practice or
preseason practice, they're going to beon campus for six months and they're gonna
be like widely veterans that have beenpart of your program for a long time.

(05:46):
And the good part about that isthey can help the other young kids
in their class kind of get acclimatedto what we're doing. But we're excited
about the eight early enroll lease andit just gives them kind of a chance
to show out during the spring whenyou're not getting ready to play a game,
you're just getting trying to develop themand see what they can do.
Yeah, I want to hit ona couple of those guys shape Ryan Struthers,
Miles Jackson, two guys coming fromthe East coast state of Georgia.

(06:10):
How have they acclimated to the programat a position where there's opportunity to play
early. Yeah. Part of it, I think them coming was the opportunity
to play early. But the twoof them have a maturity to them that
I think we're really really excited about. You know, they don't act like
your typical freshmen. They both visitedon their own in the summertime unofficially,
and we were really really impressed justkind of what their mindset was like,

(06:34):
both academically and athletically, and kindof what they're wired like. Chay's brother
was an outstanding basketball player at BYUand actually plays professional basketball in Israel.
And then Miles Jackson father was awhole Harlem Goldtrier, you know. So
I think there's a little bit ofmaturity to them based upon how they were
brought up and how they were raisedjust because of their family ties, whether

(06:57):
it be their dad or their olderbrother. So they got a pretty good
feel what it's like to be anathlete and go away and travel because they've
had people in their family do it. So I think there's a little bit
of um They've got some maturity tohim that I've been really impressive. They
haven't acted like true freshman and eventhough they enrolled early coming out of high
school. So speaking of maturity,if we spent it forward, how's Dorian
Thompson Robinson entering third year, secondfull year as a starter, been in

(07:20):
your off season program. Dorian's beengreat, really is is embraced the leadership
bowl that comes with being a quarterbackand then going into his third year as
the starter. Um, I thoughthe got better from year one to year
two. We're really excited about thesteps he's gonna make here in year three.
Uh. You know, he playedhis best games down the stretch and

(07:43):
we were really really happy with howhe played for us, and I'm excited
to see what the third year lookslike with Dorian. But from a work
ethic standpoint, he works as hardas any quarterback I've been around. So
you're excited to see what he cando, you know, in how we
can grow as an offense because quarterbackis growing. Yeah, just some of
that experience I think people forget anddon't realize you use that phrase at bats.

(08:07):
He didn't have a whole lot ofat bats in high school. Head
into Westwood and all of a suddenkind of learning on the fly and obviously
has had some success and as youmentioned, coach, he has grown here.
Before I let you get going,you had mentioned kind of what the
conversation was today about signing day withyour staff. From a portal standpoint,
is that changing how you're trying toshape these recruiting classes year in and year

(08:28):
out, like you're protecting spots becauseof that, I think you have to
plan, but you don't know.You know, two kids that we weren't
one hundred percent sure on Devin ASIASIand Darny Holmes who left for the draft,
and that's after the signing the classessigned in December. But you know,
we we've tried to go out herein the grand transfer world and obtain
a tight end and obtain a corner, and I think we've been able to

(08:50):
do that. So I kind oflook at it as you know, the
Decembers for the high school UM andthen if we consciously had a couple of
scholarships left over for the had transferworld UM in January and we did not
visit any high school kids UM inJanuary, we were done with the high
school phase of it. I thinkeighty seven percent of all high school eligible
kids signed and what they what Iheard, was in December UM. So

(09:13):
we approached it that we're going tosign our our high school class in December
and then really look, uh,you know for a player or two in
the grad world UM or the JCworld in January. And I think that's
the way it's played out for usthis year. And um, we got
a model that I think works forus right now, and we'll continue to
kind of kind of go through it, you know. I I don't know.

(09:33):
I mean we joked about it earlier. I don't know why we have
two signing days. You know,it's like a few good men with Nathan
Jess And why the two orders?You know, yes, yes, why
did you order the There are notwo orders? If you told everybody to
stay away from Private Santiago, thenwhy did you have to get him off
the base? You know? Idon't know the two signing days. Yeah,
we sign our class in December.If a kid's not ready to sign

(09:54):
in December, well then he signsin the subscriuquent days. I don't know
why there's a three day window inDecember, and then we got to wait
another six weeks so that we canreiterate the the twenty kids we signed last
December. We can talk about himagain. So I feel like I got
I have no authority in anything,so yeah, yeah, I'll just throw
it out while we're on the air. We can. I mean, we
got to plug for a movie,so you know, usually don't get those

(10:16):
unsigning days. It's a very goodmovie. I recommend it to everybody.
But when you see when you hearwhy the two orders, you think about
why the two signing days? Yeah, no, I'm with you. I
think part of the reason coaches youcan't handle the real truth around what's happening.
Maybe that's went there. I mean, that was a great go.

(10:37):
That was a great one of oneof my favorite media people talked about being
able to block in Bridge. Ilearned that from that. Unbelievable that Tven
talked to our team about that,and uh, I just loved your bridge
right there. Yeah, that wasthat was outstanding. We'll take it.
We could have a conversation about TomCruise. I don't know if you're gonna
watch the new Top Gun movie ornot, but I'm fired up. I

(11:00):
was actually in San Diego recruiting lastThursday and I drove by Merramar and I
was thinking about the next the nextmovie. I'm I'm I'm fired up to
see what you know? Top Guntwo point. I was like, I
hope you recruited on a motorcycle justbased on principal, that would that would
be a trip down that would bemust CTV. If I was having about
San Diego on a motorcycle. Yeah, I'm just I'm just sad there's gonna

(11:22):
be no goose in this one.Coach when it comes out, I will
I'm going to head down to LosAngeles. Me, you and Yogi were
all gonna go see Top Gun together, so i'd love to. Okay,
well we'll get that going. Congrats. By the way, I feel like
I learned more about your your movieinterests than and and your thoughts on college
football in Hollywood. Bro, we'rein Hollywood, You're got to be in

(11:45):
the movies. If you're in Hollywood. Yes, absolutely, we'll get Coach
cronin in Coach close on that oneas well. Okay, thanks again,
Chip, appreciate the time. Thanksguys. All right, what are you
down to see the movie? Orno? Only if we're playing four beach
volleyball and vents before or after withwhite VDX on and some dog tags.
Yeah, I believe me. I'llbe wearing the shirt and I won't go
topless there. All right, explainthis to me big picture? What are

(12:09):
we looking at legitimately product wise?This class UCLA, this upcoming season,
they're gonna better. I mean,look, they've got some holes. You
know they lose an offensive lineman ofthe portal. Let me bring back Sean
Ryan, one of the best lefttackles I think in the PacTel South.
He and Penay Sewel two of thebest in the conference. Got a quarterback,
he's a dude. They return alot of players. No longer is
it eighty seven freshman softwares and nowthey're a year older. So I expect

(12:31):
this competitiveness to be much better whenyou go to practice, much more fluid,
much more efficient. That's a teamthat should go bowling next year.
Trying to think if you were wearingthe helmet, what your call sign would
be? Ball? Yeah, butare you gonna say that, like how
great is balling? Don't? Idon't know. I feel like if you
RiPP it, yeah, rip,it might be a good one. Yeah.
Spring came by the way for UCLA, got you covered eight ten,

(12:52):
Pact twelve Network and the PAC twelve. Now APT I would just be yammer
it's good.