It would be safe to assume that it will take another year beyond 2019 for the Bruin faithful to see what a full-blown Chip Kelly team will look like, although there will continue to be glimpses. Besides the offensive tempo, Oregon during Chip’s reign had an aggressive 3-4 defense that created lots and lots of turnovers. His philosophy of “big people beat up little people,” led to starters and backups on the front line that averaged better than 6’ 4” and weighed 260 lbs with starting defensive ends around 6’ 7” and close to 300 lbs. He likes big fast players and it will take a while to stock up on those.
A quick look at some of this year’s and last year’s recruits will convince you that he hasn’t changed his mind about the importance of being big. In Chip’s first two recruiting years he has picked up six offensive guards, almost identical in size and weight averaging 6’ 4” in height and weighing in on average 290 lbs. The six offensive and defensive tackles that he has recruited during the same time also come in at 6’ 4” in height with an average weight of about a half pound shy of 300 lbs. His recruited inside and outside line backers come in around 6’ 3” in height and weighing 225 lbs with his Defensive Ends about 2” taller and about 5 lbs heavier. Beyond the WR’s, in an effort to give his QB some speed, height, and athletic options to throw to, the four TE’s he has recruited average 6’ 5.5” in height and weight in at 225 lbs. Needless to say, regardless of how it turns out, teams who face UCLA will be facing an increasingly bigger, stronger, and faster team-the type of team that, once complete, will wear you out.
All that said, even though he’s not through building the program, you won’t see another 3-9 season from UCLA. Don’t forget, after dropping their first five games they really started to show improvement on the field week-after-week and lost to the eventual PAC-12 Champion Washington by just 7 points and to Stanford by the same margin. More importantly, as far as city bragging rights go, Kelly bettered his USC counterpart in his first year trying.
One big plus for the Bruins is the return of Senior RB Joshua Kelley who ran for over 600 yards in just seven games, finishing the season with 1,243 total yards. USC won’t be forgetting him anytime soon as he pretty much beat them single handedly rushing 40 times for 11 yards shy of 300 and two TD’s. They have a good senior WR in Theo Howard to throw to, aided by TE’s that will pepper the field to keep the defense honest as well as provide other options for 2nd year QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Where they really need to improve though is on the other side of the ball ranking second from the bottom in the PAC-12 on defense while giving up 30 points in all but three games. Look for some improvement there and for UCLA to at least double their win total from last year.
The Bruins kick off their season Thursday, August 29th on the road at Nippert Stadium taking on the Cincinnati Bearcats at 4:00pm PST on ESPN. Their home opener is against the San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday September 7th followed by a visit from Oklahoma the next week.