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UCLA Football: Chip Kelly will win championships with UCLA, he has to

By Mike Regalado

WESTWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 27: UCLA Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero (L) and Chip Kelly hold up a jersey during a press conference introducing Kelly as the new UCLA Football head coach on November 27, 2017 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images)
WESTWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 27: UCLA Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero (L) and Chip Kelly hold up a jersey during a press conference introducing Kelly as the new UCLA Football head coach on November 27, 2017 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images) /
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New UCLA football coach Chip Kelly will be successful at UCLA and possibly win a few championships. With the hope he has been given, he has to.

Fans of the UCLA football team just want to win a championship. There are many available, but one would satisfy.

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It is been almost 63 years since the Bruins won a national championship.  It has been almost 19 years since UCLA won both a conference championship and a Rose Bowl championship.

Is winning a championship too much to ask?

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Not at UCLA. With the tradition, the resources, the money, the time, the effort and the emotion that is put into the Bruins, it’s not too much to ask that UCLA is competitive and claim a championship in every single one of their sports, especiallly football.

But time and time again, the athletic department missed the mark and hired coaches that could not take UCLA to the next level.

And then they did something different and  took a gamble. They put all their eggs in one basket in trying to getting Chip Kelly and actually  got him. Now it’s time for the next step.

UCLA won the Chip Kelly championship, can Chip Kelly win a championship for UCLA?

That is the hope. Kelly went to a major bowl game all four years he was at Oregon. He’s an ambitious, innovative coach that does well developing young talent. At UCLA, he will have access to a plethora of talented, young football players that will compliment Kelly’s style.

As the old saying goes, it is a “recipe for success”.

But success is not guaranteed. That is why Bruins fans have to be careful about their optimistism. If Kelly does not win a championship (any championship) with UCLA, two things will happen.

UCLA won the Chip Kelly championship, can Chip Kelly win a championship for UCLA?

First, Kelly’s image as an elite coach will take a hit. After what happened in the NFL, if he hovers around the success that Jim Mora had, his stock will go down considerably. Second, if UCLA doesn’t win a championship, then they will have to live with the fact that they are not a football school. Going out to get a championship-level coach that doesn’t win a championship will devistate the program.

But that is worst case scenario. Looking optimistically at Kelly’s situation, personally, I beleive he will win a championship. Mora, with roster he had in his first season, almost won the Pac-12. I think Kelly is a better coach than Mora and think the roster he currently has is better than the roster Mora inherited from Rick Neuheisel. It’s not a stretch to say that Kelly can win the Pac-12 in his first year, but that is just a projection.

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Eventually, Kelly should win a championship. Pac-12, Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl or National. Though UCLA needs to start small, it will be a huge relief to the Bruin faithful when they win that first championship. At that point, they can let the weight of the last several coaching regimes and mistakes by the athletic department float away.