Philadelphia Eagles: Chip Kelly falls to 0-5 as UCLA’s new head coach
After washing out of the NFL, ex-Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly’s new team, the UCLA Bruins, have struggled to reclaim his former potency.
While this may be a controversial opinion in hindsight, I was kind of bummed when the Philadelphia Eagles fired Chip Kelly.
Now don’t get me wrong, I totally saw the issues with his scheme and cringed when I saw the team’s time of possession deficiencies, but I was willing to wait things out and see how the former Oregon dynamo’s scheme would translate with a roster filled with ‘Chip Kelly’-type players, like a read-option quarterback, or a speedy wide receiver to take the top off of opposing defenses (which they still haven’t found, to be honest).
So, when I accepted a position in UCLA‘s professional screenwriting program earlier this fall, I was cautiously optimistic that Kelly would be able to recapture that Eugenie magic in Los Angeles and provide a fall filled with exciting football to close out the year.
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Boy was I wrong.
After dropping to 0-4 over the first month of the college football season, including a trio of embarrassing losses to Cincinnati, Fresno State, and Colorado, hopes weren’t exactly high at the Rose Bowl as the Bruins welcomed Pac-12 rivals the Washington Huskies for a Saterday night showdown, but still, the team somehow found a way to drop the ball in route to UCLA’s first 0-5 start since 1943.
1943.
To make matters worse, the Bruins’ 31-24 loss marked not only Chris Petersen‘s first win at the Rose Bowl in his career, but also Washington’s first win against UCLA on the road since 1995.
That’s just brutal.
While the game was a whole lot closer than many fans may have expected, as the Bruins were an onside kick away from a potential win against a ranked opponent, UCLA’s lack of a pass rush all but destroyed the team’s chance of winning, as Jake Browning routinely ran for first downs with ease regardless of the play call in route to 197 yards on the ground and 265 yards through the air.
So, with their chances of even breaking even this season all but out the window, could the 2018 college football season mark the end of Chip Kelly’s coaching career?
Probably not.
After firing then-head coach Jim Mora midway through the 2017 NCAA season on November 19th, on his birthday no less, the Bruins signed Kelly to a five-year, $23.3 million deal to help bring some glitz and glamour back to Pasadena. While the program certainly wasn’t expecting to start off the Kelly-years 0-5, it’s clear the Bruin’s roster isn’t exactly flush with talent. For better or worse, this is a year about giving UCLA’s culture a facelift, regardless of the wins and losses.
With a solid true freshman quarterback in Dorian Thompson-Robinson running the show and one of the best college recruiters in the nation back at the helm, it would appear the dark days of Bruins football may be coming to an end, but unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen in this calendar year.
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