UCLA at USC
With the millions of dollars that Nike poured into the facilities, uniforms, and salaries during Chip Kelly’s tenure at Oregon, his novel fitness and nutrition program and “Blur” offense that had defenses gasping for air, along with the stifflling defenses of Nick Aliotti, I’m thinking Chip Kelly probably wishes that he would have never left for the NFL. I know I do. Recruiting is still highly critical but with today’s revolving door, known as the college football transfer portal, great players can easily decide on their own to come play for you. Think Justin Fields who went from Georgia to Ohio State; Jalen Hurts, Alabama to Oklahoma; Cameron Rising, Texas to Utah; Ethan Garbers, Washington to UCLA; and Anthony Brown who was the starting QB at Boston College before entering the portal and ending up at Oregon and was brilliant in their big win on the national stage at Ohio State propelling the Ducks into the college football playoff picture. Why did he enter the portal—so he could have that moment and opportunity. I think Chip would have been the west coast Nick Saban had he stayed, able to recruit great players and a ton of money from the best booster in college football to help pay for high end assistant coaches, brilliant coordinators, and bigger and better football centers like the one Phil Knight funded to the tune of $68 million dollars back in 2013. Of course he didn’t stay and is in his fourth year as head coach of UCLA, this being his best year by far after having losing records in each of the previous three.
After USC scored a field goal on their first possession of this game to go up 3-0, the game took a crazy and ugly twist with back-to-back-to-back interceptions. That’s right, three interceptions in a row with QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson getting the ball rolling. Sitting on 2nd and 8 on their own 27 yard line, DTR throws an interception that is returned to the USC 42 yard line. Fortunately for UCLA, USC’s starting QB Jaxson Dart throws up an interception of his own on 3rd and 10 that’s returned to the UCLA 36 yard line. Not to be outdone in a competition for who can throw the most interceptions DTR throws up another just 3 plays later handing USC a 1st and 10 just across midfield at the UCLA 49 yard line. Once again USC couldn’t capitalize, held to a three-and-out. Then things picked up for both teams with UCLA going 94 yards in just 8 plays ending in a DTR 45 yard TD pass to Kazmeir Allen to go up 7-3. The Trojans followed with a 10 play, 63 yard, drive of their own to go up 10-7 on a seven yard TD run by Vavae Malepeai.
After that is was mostly UCLA, scoring TD’s on six of their next eight possessions while missing a field goal along the way. USC picked up three of their own and a field goal, but just couldn’t keep up with UCLA in the air or on the ground. On the day DTR averaged over 20 yards per catch while completing 16-of-22 for 349 yards, 4 TD’s and those two early picks with Juniors RB Kazmeir Allen and WR Kyle Philips accounting for more than half the yards and 2 TD’s a piece. Allen with 115 yards and 2 TD’s on just 3 receptions! On the ground, UCLA rushed 44 times for 260 yards and 4 TD’s with Junior RB Zach Charbonnet picking up well over half of those and 1 TD to go along with another by Senior RB Ethan Fernea and two more by DTR himself who rushed 11 times for 46 yards.
The UCLA pass defense was all over USC’s Jaxson Dart with three sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and 1 QB Hurry as he still connected on 27-of-47 for 325 yard and 1 TD, but two interceptions—one leading to a UCLA TD early in the 4th Qtr. The Trojans were productive on the ground rushing 39 times for 159 yards and 3 TD’s, but with UCLA putting up over 600 yards of total offense and scoring 62 points, including a 100 yard kickoff return for TD by Kazmeir Allen, they were impossible to not only keep up with but to catch after the half. As noted by the AP in their ESPN recap the Los Angeles City Championship has been held 91 times and this was, “the highest scoring performance ever by the Bruins.”
USC is certainly due for an overhaul from top to bottom and some folks feel that it took Chip Kelly too long to put things together at UCLA. But hey, look at Oregon State where Jonathan Smith started out with a team that was previously 1-11 and is now knocking on the door of the PAC-12 North title. Yeah Chip had three losing seasons in a row, but there were signs all along that things were getting better and considering how quickly players bale via the portal he did a good job of keeping his main pieces in place. One might think that he’ll have to start all over again next year, his fifth, but he should have another solid highly productive offense. If he does get to stay he should lose his current defensive coordinator. Hey, I hear Jimmy Lake is available and probably angry as hell. UCLA should be able to take care of Cal this weekend in the Rose Bowl while the Trojans get another chance to lose in front of the home crowd while hosting BYU in the Coliseum on Saturday.