He’s coming into the fifth 12 months of an costly and so-far unproductive challenge, however coach Chip Kelly stays as defiantly evasive as he was when he made his celebrated arrival at UCLA.
Speaking Friday at Pac-12 media day, the state’s highest-paid public worker didn’t need to outline what a profitable season can be for his workforce.
He didn’t need to mirror on his program’s evolution underneath him.
And he undoubtedly didn’t need to acknowledge that he has to show to his college’s administration that he’s the proper coach to lead UCLA into the Big Ten in two years.
“I’ve never worried about my contract my entire life,” Kelly mentioned. “I’m blessed just that I get a chance to coach football.”
His refusal to handle actuality didn’t change his predicament.
Kelly has to deliver outcomes.
UCLA’s roster is his, made up nearly completely of gamers he recruited.
He has a fifth-year quarterback in Dorian Thompson-Robinson and the finest operating again in the convention in Zach Charbonnet.
His workforce was 8-4 final season and its schedule is as comfortable as Bruins defenses underneath Kelly, beginning with gimmies towards Bowling Green, Alabama State and South Alabama.
The Bruins can win 10 video games. They ought to win 10 video games.
“Success is having a really good Friday,” Kelly mentioned, recycling one in every of his go-to cliches.
Kelly smirked.
“That part doesn’t change,” he mentioned.
Plenty has modified from the first time Kelly represented the Bruins at this convention’s media day, nevertheless.
The Bruins aren’t the Gutty Little Bruins anymore. They’re now the Wasteful Spending Bruins.
They have paid Kelly greater than $4 million a 12 months. They as soon as spent greater than $5 million in a season to feed their gamers. They spent $65 million on their state-of-the-art coaching facility.
The program has develop into the soccer equal of California’s high-speed rail, its prices unjustifiable and its outcomes indefensible.
Kelly’s file at UCLA is 18-25, the worst file of any coach at school historical past who lasted 4 seasons.
Somehow, Kelly managed to not solely to preserve his job but in addition obtain a brand new four-year contract.
The key was in the particulars.
If Kelly is fired after Dec. 16 of subsequent 12 months, UCLA wouldn’t owe him one other dime.
In different phrases, athletic director Martin Jarmond can take the subsequent 12 months and a half to resolve whether or not he needs Kelly teaching the Bruins of their inaugural season in the Big Ten. If Jarmond determines Kelly would flip UCLA right into a West Coast model of Rutgers, he can search for a brand new coach with out consideration of economic penalties.
There are not any extra excuses.
The extra eligibility that athletes gained due to the pandemic has formed the Bruins into an skilled workforce, with Kelly saying they have 21 gamers who have already got their bachelor’s levels.
In addition to Thompson-Robinson and Charbonnet, Kelly pointed to a bunch of fifth- and sixth-year seniors that included offensive linemen Jon Gaines II and Sam Marrazzo in addition to safeties Stephan Blaylock and Mo Osling III.
“We have a lot of veteran leadership at key positions for us,” Kelly mentioned.
UCLA additionally has a brand new defensive coordinator in Bill McGovern.
McGovern, an inside linebackers coach with the Chicago Bears final 12 months, changed one other longtime pal of Kelly in Jerry Azzinaro.
The Bruins scored a median of 36.5 factors final season, which ranked first in the Pac-12 and sixteenth nationally. The downside was their protection, which gave up 26.8 factors per recreation and was ranked No. 75 in the nation.
Their protection has to enhance. Or else.
Kelly is aware of that.
While preaching about how he was extra involved about course of than outcomes, he acknowledged, “We’re always outcome-aware, but we don’t make predictions.”
USC’s Lincoln Riley has taken the reverse strategy, as the first-year coach declared Friday that his goal is to win a nationwide championship this season.
Perhaps Kelly subscribes to the principle that if he doesn’t set any expectations publicly, he gained’t be held to them. In a college with a fan base as overwhelmed down as UCLA’s, he could possibly be on to one thing.
But the distinction between Kelly’s and Riley’s rhetoric was hanging. That doesn’t imply they don’t share the related calls for to produce outcomes.