The hiring of Chip Kelly as the head coach of the UCLA Football program sent shock waves through social media and prompted a flurry of “specials” from content producers. Here’s a very special “special” from your friends at the UCLA B-Team podcast.
There hasn’t been this much measurable excitement around the UCLA Football team in what feels like forever. This move to fire Jim Mora in itself was a huge move for this athletic department but the subsequent move to force an SEC team out of the race for Chip Kelly’s services and land the perceived home run hire has anyone who knows UCLA in a state of disbelief.
That same disbelief was in the air as we prepared to record a “Chip Kelly” episode and we went in depth with his hiring and what it means for the UCLA Football program.
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It was a two man show between Chavito and Hanna with the pair each first sounding off about how we feel about the hire. Both of us agree that the personnel that UCLA has on the roster will fit perfectly into the scheme that should maximize the impressive talent. Defensively though we aren’t quite sure how seamless the transition will be although you can’t argue with the talented pieces that are already in place.
We moved next to which coaches we think are either in play to be brought in to work with Kelly and which coaches we don’t expect to keep their jobs through this transitional period. We dropped some names you should know as potential additions to the staff. As for guys who might not be retained, the names might not shock you but it is more than worth discussing since we have no idea what Kelly might do.
We wrapped up our discussion by proposing the question “What does this say about UCLA Football and UCLA athletics moving forward?”. Now that the Bruins have ponied up the money and decided to play big boy ball with the football program will they do the same in other revenue sports? There were also a surprisingly high number of listener questions that we answered here as well.
Next: UCLA Football: Should Josh Rosen play in the bowl game?
It was a surprise episode but a great one as well. Make sure you keep tuning into both the UCLA B-Team podcast and the What’s Bruin Show in the next few weeks as we discuss any new assistant coaching developments and make Go Joe Bruin your homepage to avoid missing anything UCLA Bruins.