Bruins Rising: Year Three Under Chip Kelly

It's a big season in Westwood as the Bruins try to take the next step in their third year under one of the game's great offensive innovators. Ashley Adamson and Yogi Roth conduct a candid conversation with Chip Kelly about the progress of his UCLA team, the development of quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and his personal experience with COVID-19.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's been enlightening for us. Youknow, there's some quality young men here
that chose this place because it isthe number one public institution in the country
and you get to play football atthe highest level. So I think are
One of our coaches mentioned in lockroomtoday that I went home and told his
wife last night about how much funit is to be around these guys every
day. And it really is.You've got some really sharp guys and that

(00:20):
are trying to affect change with theirplatform, but also want to be competitive
and play football at the highest level. So it's it's fun to be around
these guys, and it's a qualitygroup. And I appreciate you pointing out
the character these guys because that's reallyimportant to us here. All Right.

(00:48):
UCLA Bruins set to kick off abouta month from now, November seventh at
Colorado, and that'll be followed byback to back Friday games home opener against
Utah in week two and then theBruins, Yeah, they had to chip
always old stomping grounds to take onthe defending Pack twelve chants from Oregon and
their divisional crossover matchup. A coupleof tough games in December as well week
five at ASU, followed by thecrosstown rivalry matchup with USC in week six,

(01:12):
and just a reminder to everyone,a seventh the game against a conference
opponent will be played December eighteenth ornineteenth. So with that, Chip Kelly,
head coach of the Bruins, joiningYogi Roth and myself now coach.
First things first, it looks likeyou're in your office, which is better
than what I know it's been thelast few months. Can you kind of
give us a lay of the landand where everything is right now as you

(01:34):
guys hope to get camp started onFriday. Yeah, we've gotten back into
our office in our building about twoweeks ago. Our players are actually the
two weeks ago was the first timewe were out actually allowed to lift because
we had to do everything outside,so we weren't allowed in the weight room
at all. But we're back inthe building, just the coaches. Our
players are still we still have meetingswith our players, but they're all done

(01:55):
virtually, so we're still not allowedin our meeting rooms and we're getting back
to normalcy, but we're still good. We're still going to ways to go.
So speaking of normalcy, you're goingto go back to you. Gene
is actually referenced. I'm sure coachAlliotie will do everything you can to get
somewhere near you. I'm not sureif that all will be allowed. Uh,
And we make a lot of it. What's it like when you saw
that? Is it Old Had?Is it a big deal? Do you

(02:17):
get nostalgic at all? Now it'snot Old Had? And I just think
it's different. So you know,there won't be any fans in the stands.
And then, like most coaches,all we wanted to know, and
I think I would speak for allthe coaches in the league, is who
is our opener? Because we hadno idea who our opener was. So
normally we were supposed to open withNew Mexico State, so you had every
game broken down and you're prepared togo, and the actually game played a

(02:38):
little bit, you know, gettingready for that game, and we hadn't
so you know, we didn't knowwhat our schedule was. And then once
it was I guess announced on Saturday, you knew you were playing three home,
three away. So I don't thinkthere are any surprises for anybody.
And you know, our biggest concernis what's going on with Colorado, not
what's going to happen in week three, So our our attention has been making

(02:58):
sure we have the rest of Weplayed Colorado towards the end of last year.
But the challenge we're playing Colorado isthat it's a it's a new head
coach, you know, Coach Tuckerleft and Carl came in late um,
so what are they doing offensively,defensively and special teams wise? Is really
what our focus now that that thatopen or not Game three. We talked
to Carl Durrella earlier and obviously aninteresting connection there is a former UCLA bruining

(03:23):
head coach of UCLA, so we'llsee how that comes full circle. I
know you guys are anxious to getgoing, and I'm just curious before we
dive into some of your specific personnel. You mentioned that they haven't been able
to be in the weight room.You haven't been able to really be around
them in the way that you normallycan. What have you seen from the
limited time that you've been able tosee these guys from a physicality standpoint and
where you hope that they would becoming into this point. I think their

(03:45):
shape was good, you know,in terms of their conditioning because we had
been able to run and work withthem outside. Um, you just missed
some of the big lifts that youwere allowed to do on the on the
inside squats and things like that.So mul Performance team led by Frank Wintrick,
has done a really good job consideringthe limitations that they had of getting
these guys up to speed and youknow, really being scientific as our approach

(04:11):
to this ramp up here, andso that you know, I think part
of the things that we all saidis let's learn from the people that are
going before us, you know,whether it was the colleges that started a
little bit earlier than now, sothe NFL teams. And one of the
glaring things when you look at theNFL teams is a number of soft tissue
injuries that they've had. You know, I think in Week one of the
NFL there was something like twenty threehamstring injuries just on that Sunday. So

(04:32):
we've been real conscious of making surethat we're taking care of our guys from
a soft tissue situation and so thatwhen we do get ready to play on
the seventh, that everybody's available.You know, obviously you have to be
conscious of COVID, but you alsohave to be conscious of their physical conditioning
so that they're ready to play whenwhen we go to Colorado. So that's
really what our focus and concentration hasbeen on. Yeah. With that said,

(04:56):
in a proverbial training camp about tobegin in a couple of days,
you know, I've been at yourguys a practice and you go, you
go hard. Is there something thatyou're gonna have to change to prevent some
of those injuries as you do rampup for that opener? Yeah, top
one task is the biggest thing.You know. I'm not sure you're gonna
we won't be in a two hourpractice mode on day one. I think

(05:17):
you have to ramp it up.We've been doing that for a couple of
weeks that our coaches have been allowedto do skill to skill work with our
guys on the field. We haven'tdone any eleven on eleven or any of
that stuff that that will come withwhen we're allowed to kind of get together.
But we're really conscious of that,so our practices won't be as long

(05:38):
in the beginning. I think weneed to ramp up. You need to
undulate your training modules in terms oftime and that you're out there, so
there maybe an hour practice followed byan hour and a half practice, by
a two hour practice, and thenmaybe a day off. So we are
it's not your traditional training camp.It's also not your traditional training camp because
we're in school, so we're limitedto twenty hours a week. It's not

(05:59):
you know, you don't have themall day long like you do when when
they come back in August when there'sno school in sessions, so there's a
lot of newness to it, butwe're gonna let science dictate how we're going
to progress here in terms of whatwe're gonna do from a training standpoint.
Chip want to ask you about yourquarterback, join Thompson Robinson. Obviously,
I think it's helpful to remind peoplehe only had a few hundred snaps a

(06:20):
quarterback in his life when he cameto UCLA's now played better part of two
seasons in college. What's your senseof where he is right now or what
do you need from him? Whatare you asking from him this year for
you guys to be successful. Yeah, that's a great question. We're just
asking to be himself. You know, he's he's worked extremely hard here in
the offseason. He's got a greatcommand of what we're doing. It's our

(06:42):
third year with him. You know, he was forced into playing in the
opener as a true freshman without thebenefit of early and rolling, so he
was only here for the month ofAugust, and then we had brought Walton
Spad in from Michigan and Wilton wentout on the second quarter of our opening
game. So Dorry and came offthe bench and did a great job.
You know when the work that hegot in as a true freshman. You

(07:04):
know, played every game but onelast year for us and continues to.
You know, the one thing aboutduring is every week he gets better.
Um, and you could see heworked extremely hard while we were restricted with
COVID. You know, we onlyhad three practices in the spring. But
he came back and really did areally nice job. You know, you
could tell he's worked out. Hesome kids were limited in what they could

(07:28):
be working out wise, but he'sbeen sharp so far, you know,
and we're really excited about you knowwhat this abbreviated season will hold for Dorian.
How about in the creative way thatyou guys have rebuilt this froster.
I love some of the grad transfers. You brought in running back, Britain
Brown, bring an offensive lineman fromVillanova. Of course two defensive backs have
been able to notice a maturity ora sense of urgency from those guys already

(07:51):
contributing to so many players that showedup as freshman for you. Yeah,
and part of it was by design. You know, we had some gaps
in our classes, so instead ofcontinuing to bring in you know, we
had I think last year over eightyfreshman and sophomores, so we needed some
older guys in here. And thenbringing in five older guys. You know

(08:11):
that was by design. We signedtwenty younger kids. But we brought in
five transfers, evidence in Joko fromMiami to add to Um, the lineman
from Villanova, the two defensive backs, and Britain Brown from Duke so um
in all positions the need for usyou know, Um, we lost Josh
Kelledy the NFL, so we neededto get it back in here and Britain
uh kind of will fill that modefor us. Um we lost Darnay Holmes

(08:35):
to the to the NFL and leavingearly um so q Nighte and uh ob
Ebu Um I think really will helpus from that standpoint. Um, and
then we needed help in the offensiveline. Um. We lost Jake Burton
early in the season. Um,he left to go try to play at
Baylor when he didn't think we weregonna play. UM. So we were
fortunate enough to get a grad transferfrom Villanova who was a FCS All American

(08:56):
and Paul Grattin so UM, theyfilled specific needs. And we've had a
few grad transfers since I've been here, and they've all been you know,
the Wolton Spade to the world.The Wade Lee's are puttered. There's just
a maturity. They kind of beenthere, done that. Um. They're
all about getting a getting a graduatedegree and playing football and scene if they

(09:16):
can play at the next level.And these guys fit right in that moldy.
They have already stepped into leadership roles. Um. They've experienced a lot
and their careers already and enough sharingthat with our younger guys. You know,
they're not storry I freshmen walking aroundup there's this is their first college
practice. They've they've got a lotof experience and it's shown so far just
in the skill development work that we'vedone on the field. And we're excited

(09:37):
to see what they can do incamp. Coach, you talk about a
grad degree, how about a lawdegree? Just to go back to obo
the Stanford grad transfer he got intolaw school from what I understand on his
own. Have you ever coached aguy who is in law school? No,
I haven't. Um, he's justa special young man. I know.
Yogi actually got a chance to doa podcast with him Eli in the

(10:00):
year and um just wired right,you know, in a in a guy.
I know when I talked to Davidabout him, Um, you know,
he raved about him as a asa person also, and those are
really key things. Same thing withBritain Brown coming out of UM, coming
out of Duke and listening to whatcoach Cutcliffe had to say, and then
what coach Ferranti had to say aboutGranton coming out of Villanova. We got,

(10:20):
you know, some some real qualityyoung men that we've added to it,
and it's given us these guys havesome maturity to him. So I
think it's really helping with our youngteam. And um, it's interesting.
You know, Obie's in a differentcourse load than some other guys. Got
a lot of night classes like normallaw school students, and fortunate for us
we practice in the morning. Buthe's he's been great so far and we're

(10:41):
excited to see what he can dothis season for us. I want to
mike him up when he gets calledfor, you know, just to see
what he says to the official ifhe does talk. But but I'm reminded
as you talk right now, coach, you told me when you first got
there, you wanted this programma bethe number one character program in the country.

(11:01):
And I just have these names goingthrough my mind right now, Ethan
Fernie and Mike Martinez, Sean Ryanlike the high character guy. So how
would you assess the character of thisprogram now that the freshmen or now upperclassmen
their experience for you, yeah,they they're obviously have gotten a baptism under
fire. But you know, inwhat's gone on in twenty twenty, just

(11:22):
off the field, having this groupevery day that you get a chance to
come in or as a coach andbe around these guys, it's it's it's
been enlightening for us. You know, there's some quality young men here that
chose this place because it is thenumber one public institution in the country,
and you get to play football atthe highest level. So I think are
one of our coaches mentioned in lockroomtoday that I went Holman told his wife

(11:45):
last night about how much fun itis to be around these guys every day,
and and it really is. You'vegot some really sharp guys and that
are trying to affect change with theirplatform, but also want to be competitive
and play football at the highest level. So it's it's fun to be around
these guys and it's a quality group. And I appreciate you pointing out the
character these guys because that's really importantto us here. Well, I want

(12:07):
to follow up and ask you aboutyour staff, because you have a couple
of new faces. Brian Norwood,the team's assistant head coach, and then
Keenan Lowe, one of your fourplays at Oregon who everybody follows the back
twelve knows his story. Well,what are those two bring to the mix.
Well, we lost a great coachin Paul Rhodes, who actually Yogi
knows from back in his days atpitt went to go on to be the
coordinator at Arizona. So well,we unfortunately we'll have to face Paul at

(12:30):
some point in time later on inthe season. But you know, I've
known of Brian for a long timeand been highly successful. Whether he's at
Penn State, in Texas Tack KansasState, He's been all over the place.
He's actually grew up in Hawaii andplayed at the University of Wai,
so we had some West coast ties, but you know, came very,
very highly recommended. I know Kennyand maslol were very well at Navy and

(12:52):
couldn't say enough good things about Brian, and then Brian's come here and really
filling some big shows from Paul Rode, solidifying our back end, and really
it was a seamless transition, whichis hard to say because Paul is such
an outstanding person as well as acoach. So to get someone of Brian
Norwood's character what was really fortunate forus. So we're excited about where he's

(13:16):
going to take our secondary in whatdirection they're headed in. So you referenced
Arizona. It just came out yesterdaythat coach someone has contracted COVID nineteen.
It was reported that you and yourwife had it earlier in the summer.
Yeah, what was it like ifyou are willing to talk about it,
and have you talked to Coach,I have not talked to some yet.
Um, I just heard the newstoday. And then we had it last

(13:39):
April. We had it probably earlyin the COVID season, and it's,
you know, the baffling thing tome, and what has always made me
understand the disease a little bit isthat still have no idea how we contracted
it. You know, at thattime, as everybody knows, that's in
California, we were on lockdown.So the only place I ever went was

(14:00):
to the grocery store, you know, and had the mask and gloves on,
and they were letting six people inthe store at a time, and
that was the only really interaction youhad with any other people. And then,
um, I was fatigued one daywhen I and I shouldn't have been
because I had a good night's sleepand didn't think much of it. Um
really didn't have anything besides that.And then about two or three days later,
my wife started to develop a fever, so contacted our team doctors and

(14:24):
said we should get checked out.And then they said you should get checked
out just because you're in the house, Coach, and we both went and
got tested and got our results backthe next day. And we were both
positive. So um, you know, we had a quarantine in isolation for
two weeks and um Joe was sickfor four or five days, had a
bad you know cold. Um.But fortunately for us, nothing that we

(14:46):
had to go to the hospital orhad to do any of the stuff that
you see is or the tragic thingsthat have happened in with this disease.
So we we count ourselves as thelucky ones. But it's, um,
it's real and you can get itfrom anywhere. So m it doesn't have
to be at a mass event wherepeople are at a party or a wedding
or something like that that you hearall these references to. It can be

(15:07):
when you really maybe dropped your guard. And I'm still trying to figure out
how it happened, But um,it can happen to anybody. Um.
You know you're seeing it in theNFL with some players. Now you heard
coach someone, I know there's othercollege coaches. Coach Norvelle at Florida State
had it. There's guys in theNFL that have had it as coaches.
I know Anthony Lynn had it.I think John Gruten had it. So

(15:28):
UM, it's it's something that everybodyhas to guard on and you hope that
you don't have any pre existing conditionso that when you get it, it
can really adversely affect you. Becausewe have had players on our team that
have lost family members because of it, and so it's real and you really
got to be tacked this very veryseriously. And um, we're not out
of the woods yet, you know. And that's the one thing I think,

(15:48):
and we try to tell our playersout all the time, is that
we've gotten the a OK to playfootball, but that doesn't mean that everybody's
safe. We still have to reallyprotect our ecosystem and make sure we're wearing
mass at all time, and wewash our hands and we socially distanced,
you know, to make sure thatwe can play. We've been given the
opportunity to play on November seven,but we got to make sure everybody's available

(16:10):
on November seven. Chip, Iappreciate you sharing that with us, and
I think, obviously, going throughit yourself and your wife, you have
a different perspective on COVID than maybesome other people might. I just I
wonder, and you know, we'vetalked about this a lot before, but
to be asking eighteen to twenty twoyear old young men to basically shut down
from the rest of the world asmuch as they possibly can. I know

(16:32):
it's something that you guys talk abouta lot, but what have you seen
from them, because we are askingpeople are asking a lot of these young
people to be able to have afootball season. What have you seen the
response that it's been from them,at least in the last six months that
if you guys have continued these conversations, our players have been outstanding, you
know, and our numbers are extremelylow. We had a couple kids test

(16:52):
positive when they first got back tocampus, so they actually had it when
they got here and they core teamand did what they had to do.
And then everybody else well since they'vebeen on campus has been fantastic and they
know, you know, they knowthat it again, we try to emphasize
it. This disease doesn't discriminate,it can It can infect anybody and everybody,

(17:12):
so UM you really have to bevery conscious and if you want to
play UM, you need to reallykind of follow the CDC protocols in terms
of UM making sure that you keepyourself safe. And our players have been
great because they do have something toplay for you know, when they don't

(17:33):
want to be knocked off of that. You know, when you when you
really look at what our schedule isis we have a six week season.
Um, there is no wiggle rooms. You know, there's not a hey,
if this game gets canceled, wecan make it up during this open
date. We don't have any opendates. So, UM, I think
they're really conscious of that. Andthen they've been great, you know,
watching them interact on campus and youknow, when we leave our building and
you're driving home at night, yousee some guys on the street, but
they all have their mass on them, their social distancing, and they're doing

(17:55):
what they're supposed to do because,um, if they do catch it,
they know it's going to affect theability to play, and it's kind of
affect the ability to play. Itis first, isn't really first and foremost.
It's their health, which is firstand foremost, because the issue is
you may not know if you haveunderlying conditions until you get COVID. You
know, and you can hear thestories throughout the country of you know that
this relatively healthy person is in reallydire shape right now because they may not

(18:21):
have known that they had something insideof them from an underlying condition that could
hurt them because they contracted COVID.So the best way to take care of
it is to not contract COVID.So you got to really be conscious every
day and you can't let you harddown. Really well said man. We
appreciate you coming on coach, andyou have a lot to prepare for,
but really thank you for the timeand wishing to the best. All right,

(18:42):
yo, thank you well, yeaexactly. I appreciate Chip Kelly given
us the scoop kind of on hisexperience with COVID, because as far as
I know that that story hasn't reallybeen out there publicly. So thanks to

(19:03):
Chip for sharing his experience with us. And I think as a player,
and he mentioned some of the guyson his team have lost family members to
COVID, I think when something hitshome to you and you see how it
affects people who are close to you, it allows you to see things in
a different light. Yeah, AndI think for for Chip Kelly, like
you know, we all remember himat Oregon and of course they were they

(19:26):
won, he kind of burst outinto the scene in the coaching world at
least like naturally is a huge name. Then he went to the NFL.
You know, it's kind of beenyou know, you know, a big
time figure in football, right.And I think he's a Hall of Famer
in college football because I think whathe did to offense change it in the
league, change and in college Like, I think he's a clearly an innovator,

(19:48):
and I think that's not enough creditfor him. I say that because
so often, you know, youdon't really always feel and see the human
side of him unless you know himlike we do. And for him to
go there and talk about what heand his wife Joe went through just reminds
all of us, like here weare talking about games. Were so excited,
like there are two opponents and therewill be until there's a cure to

(20:08):
this thing, and it will beof course who you play in line up
against, but it'll also be COVIDnineteen. And I think for UCLA in
their program, especially in LA whereCOVID nineteen has rocked our community, it's
a great example that the players aregoing to see every day. So I'd
imagine the character they have in thediscilin that they'll have around this will hopefully
allow them to get through the seasonrelatively on scape and you talk about,

(20:32):
you know, Chip as a Hallof Fame caliber coach in college. I
think a lot of what his legacywill be maybe centered around what he does
this year, next year, inthe next couple of years at UCLA.
This is a big year for ChipKelly. Everybody knows it. Third season
as a head coach is usually whenyou're supposed to kind of start seeing the
fruits of your labor and recruiting.This year is different for a variety of
reasons. But what is your expectationfor the Bruins. Yeah, well,

(20:59):
it's such a unique year, youknow, and I think spring practice would
have been a huge part for thisprogram and summer workouts. You know.
He talked about the grid transfers thatthey had. All of them probably wouldn't
have participated, of course in springfootball, but some of them may have.
And then you add in all theyoung players they have, Like I
look at their linebacking corps, especiallyAshley and Yeah, I called a bunch
of their games over the last coupleof years, but last year in particular,

(21:22):
Carl Jones as a true freshman whocame in as a safety I think
as a running back too, wasplaying like inside linebacker, like he just
wasn't built for the beating of thatposition through four quarters. Like he came
in and filled in admirably. Youknow, he played fearless. But that's
my point. So I look atsome of the transfers they have, some

(21:44):
of them like bow Calvert, hewas suspended last year and he comes back
and play inside. Some of theJC transfers they have. So I look
forward to watching that position and ifthey can, for the course of camp
get this defense figured out, becauseI think they have the bodies now kind
look the part they can stop therun or slow it down in the front
seven, they'll have a chance.Is I think they'll move the ball.

(22:06):
I think they have enough of weapons. Dimetric Felton, we didn't even talk
about him. You know, he'sprobably the most explosive player in the PAC
twelfth South in terms of where theymove them and how they move him.
So that to me, it isthe biggest question mark, and it's one
that you think about college football.Usually defenses are further ahead. We have
not seen that thus far this season. Other conferences defenses have not looked good
that traditionally should, so I'm curiousand I really anticipate to see what this

(22:29):
defense looks like. Well, Andto that point, I think a huge
key to success for dtr and Feltoneverybody on offense is whether or not they'll
be playing from behind. I mean, that was what crushed him so much
of last year obviously, is whenyou're trying to constantly play from behind and
play hero and make up for deficiencieson defense, that it affects what you
are doing offensively in the cadence youget into there. One other thing,

(22:51):
and it's not a sexy topic,but I think worth pointing out. And
when we had a chance to doa deep dive in use Cla about a
month ago, this was something thatcame up. But they don't have a
proven punter or kicker, and that'sI mean, will you tell me how
big of a deal is that.Well, it's a big deal. But
I believe they brought in like oneof the top kickers in the country in

(23:11):
recruiting, so I'm excited to seewhat I think. It's Luke Acres,
you know, and can he doeverything? So I do think it's a
huge deal. I think for them, you made a great point so many
games last year they were kind offighting, clawing their way behind. And
you could talk to anybody who's playedfor Chip Kelly back in the day at
Oregon or in the league. Iremember talking to Mark Sanchez about the Eagles,

(23:32):
and so much of his system isset up as when can we take
advantage of you? And when weekenlike we're going to hit the gas,
and when you're playing from behind,it just it impacts how you play.
And then you add in all theinjuries or freshmen that we're playing a key
positions like left tackle and Sean Ryanlast year, I just think this team,
at least for me, they arethe most intriguing team in the PAC

(23:53):
twelve this year. This is whoI want to watch every Saturday. I'm
so interested. I don't I wouldn'tgo as far as say like they're a
sleeper to win the Pac twelve.I think that'd be a stretch with so
many unknowns. But man, thereis not a program in the country that
I'm more excited to watch than themin year three hundred. Coach Kelly love
that Bruins fans, I'm sure smilingas well as they listen to you give

(24:15):
that take. So November seventh,at Colorado. That's when it is set
to kick off for Chip Kelly yearthree in Westwood. Going to be great
to see how it all plays out. A reminder if you want to do
more of a deep dive on someof the teams in the Pac twelve,
we're doing one on one interviews withevery single head football coach in the Pac
twelve. You can find those allright here on the Pactuel Perspective podcast as
well as on Pac dashtwelve dot com