In Chip Kelly’s address at this year’s PAC-12 Media Day he provided quite a lot of insight into this year’s teams. They lost twelve players to the NFL, six to the draft and six to free agency. He pointed out that 21 of their current players have already graduated with 20 attending grad school and commented that the age of the team should help them succeed this year. UCLA is expected to have another great year running the ball led by Zach Charbonnet, a preseason Doak Walker Award winner honoring the player considered to be the top running back in the country. Chip also mentioned that he expects Keegan Jones to have a good year on the ground as well as Kazmeir Allen, a former RB and California State 100 meter sprint champion, moved to receiver but can do both and Deshun Murrell a freshman who red-shirted in 2021. If Allen doesn’t ring any bells for you he was the player who, in the game last year against the Trojans, had 278 all purpose yards including three receptions for 115 yards and 2 TD’s as well as a 100 yard kick return to the house for another score. He is on a watch list for the Paul Hornung Award which goes to the most versatile player in the country.
As far as the receiving core goes, in addition to Allen the Bruins picked up Jake Bobo, a 6’ 5” outside receiver that led the ACC in receptions last year and has been added to the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award which is given to the nation’s top receiver regardless of position. At QB is a stronger bulkier Dorian Thompson-Robinson, now in his 5th year-experience that Chip thinks will bode well for their chances. They picked up some key transfers in the secondary which now has the size that Kelly has wanted since the beginning and says that he’d match his current batch of tight ends with any team in the country. When asked about the move to the Big Ten and expansion in general Kelly said, “I think the biggest thing is to focus on what we can control. What we can control is right now and the ’22 team. That’s what our focus is on. One thing I do know about this game, everybody complains about the game, where it’s headed, but I think the product on the field is as good as it’s ever been.” When asked about expansion Chip said; “We’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing. The young kids that we have right now that are playing football are awesome . . . They’re special. We should be talking about them. We should be talking about the season that all of them are going to have here in 2022 and not talking about expansion at this point in time.”
In a rocky start against Bowling Green the Bruins got the ball first but their offense sputtered, forcing them to punt which was blocked and run into the end zone for an early 7-0 lead for the Falcons. But on their very next possession UCLA’s QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson took his own tour to the house on a 68 yard QB option. After holding Bowling Green and forcing a punt the UCLA Special Teams made another critical mistake with a fumbled punt reception deep in their own territory. Four plays later the Falcons connect on a field goal to go up 10-7. UCLA’s next possession goes 48 yards in 10 plays but falls short on a 4th and 4 at the Bowling Green 27 yard line when DTR’s pass falls incomplete. The Falcon’s next possession has them moving the ball 73 yards in just eight plays culminating in a Matt McDonald 22 yard TD pass to Christian Sims to put Bowling Green up 17-7. But the Bruins will get it all back starting with a field goal and then on their next possession brilliant running by Zach Charbonnet and a TD pass by DTR to tie the score at 17 a piece. After that it was all UCLA the rest of the way starting with a 52 yard catch and run by Charbonnet to go up 24-17 at the half. After the break the UCLA defense settled in, not allowing another point on the board by the Falcons while holding them to four three-and-outs, a fumble, and a failed 4th down conversion while putting up three TD’s of their own for a final score of 45-17. Could have been more but the Bruins missed two field goal attempts which could be a problem going forward.
In spite of the interception, UCLA QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson had a very productive day connecting on over 70% of his passess for just two ticks shy of 300 yards in the air and 2 TD’s to go along with seven carries for 80 yards and 2 more scores. Backup QB Ethan Garbers also picked up a TD as did RB Zach Charbonnet who carried the load on the ground rushing 21 times for 111 yards. The Bruin defense picked up 47 tackles including 2 sacks and 9 tackles for loss. Besides the early mistakes, the weakest part of the UCLA offense right now looks like the Place Kicker, Junior Nicholas Barr-Mira, who was only 1-for-3 in field goal attempts and punted once for a mere 28 yards. UCLA outpaced Bowling Green in 1st downs, 30-9; total yards, 626-162 with 269 yards rushing and 357 yards in the air. The Bruins stay at home again next week as they host Alabama State.