UCLA Football: National Signing Day position group report card

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PASADENA, CA – NOVEMBER 11: Josh Rosen /

It was the first National Signing Day for new UCLA football head coach Chip Kelly who pulled in an amazing class, but there was still room for improvement. Go Joe Bruin looks at how the Bruins did with our position group grades.

After the exodus of payers that decommitted from the UCLA football team after the hiring of Chip Kelly, not many knew how the new coach’s first class would look like.

UCLA might not have pulled in five-star recruits, but they did pull in players that are going to help Kelly execute his game plan. There were definitely some surprises, as well as missed opportunities, but for the most part it was a pretty good class Kelly assembled in his first year with UCLA. So let us check out how he did on an individual group basis, which will eventually give us an overall grade.

Quarterbacks: A

★★★★ QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson 6’1, 195 lbs., (Bishop Gorman HS/Las Vegas, NV)

UCLA fans might have had to wait a little bit longer in the day to find out that DTR is officially a Bruin, but it was worth it. The four-star quarterback out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas has been committed to UCLA since the summer of 2017. Though that was back in the Jim Mora era, he has stayed true to his word by not only remaining committed, but finally signing his national letter of intent.

Even though there was a change in coaches, it seems as though Chip Kelly will be a better fit for the dual-threat quarterback. In his days at Oregon, Kelly ran up-tempo offenses which was beautifully orchestrated by several quarterbacks who have the ability to not just throw the ball, but use their legs to advance down the field.

Thompson-Robinson is essentially a perfect fit for Kelly. The only issue here is that he will not be at UCLA until the summer, missing spring practice. Until then, Devon Modster, Matt Lynch and Washington grad transfer K.J. Carta-Samuels will be leading the offense.

Though it will take a little bit of time for DTR to get acclimated with UCLA’s style of play, it shouldn’t be long until we see him running the offense himself.