UCLA Football: Chip Kelly Offers a Glimpse Into How He Calls the Offense

While we already looked at Monday’s interviews in our Spaulding Report on Tuesday morning, let’s look at the UCLA Bruins’ interviews from Tuesday and Wednesday.

As usually, I’ll start with Chip Kelly.

On Wednesday, Kelly offered a rare glimpse into how he calls his offense. Ben Bolch of the LA Times noted that the offense usually seems to start off well. So, he asked Kelly if he scripts a certain number of plays each week.

Kelly responded by explaining that he scripts plays according to the situation. So, he detailed how there tend to be a limited number of third and short situations and explained that he usually scripts about six for that scenario. He went on to talk about scripting for first downs as well. It really was one of the best insights into the offensive mind of Kelly that we’ve seen and makes this video worth watching.

He also included that he looks for tendencies in the defense in certain situations like when the defense is playing man-to-man 75% of the time in a certain scenario. But he also discussed the plethora of reasons why most plays are not perfect including the fact that the defense affects how things turn out, like when he calls a play designed to gain yards against a man-to-man defense and the defense ends up in a zone on that particular play.

If you’re into the strategy of football, definitely check out the full video of Kelly’s interview.

On Tuesday, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Osa Odighizuwa met with the media after practice. DTR was asked if the team ran more run-pass option (RPOs) plays against Stanford and he confirmed that they did and he discussed how he likes to have the freedom to use his feet more and how it adds another dimension to the offense.

Meanwhile, Ose Odighizuwa discussed the play of the defense last week against Stanford.

Then, on Wednesday, Wade Lees and Jason Harris also spoke with the media. Lees spoke about how he wants to become a sports broadcaster when he’s done playing and how he’s consulted with Yogi Roth about planning for his career in broadcasting.

He also discussed what happened on the blocked punt against Stanford.

Meanwhile, Harris spoke about the difference between LA and Illinois. He mentioned that his dad told him it was rainy and cold at home. So, he loves being in LA.

He also spoke about how much fun it was last week against Stanford.

Today’s game kicks off at 4:30 pm PT on Pac-12 Networks.


Go Bruins!!!