The Sporting News came out with their rankings for the top coaches for 2018 and new UCLA football coach Chip Kelly is already getting some love.
He has not even called a single play for the UCLA football team but Chip Kelly is already getting a lot of attention.
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Most recently, Sporting News came out with their ranking of the top coaches in the nation for 2018 and Kelly came in at 4th overall in the Pac-12 behind Chris Petersen of Washington, David Shaw of Stanford and Clay Helton of USC.
Pac-12 in Top College Football Coaches for 2018 per @sportingnews
— SuperWest Sports (@SuperWestSports) June 13, 2018
7. Petersen, UW
10. Shaw, Stan
18. Helton, USC
19. Kelly, UCLA
25. Whittingham, Utah
29. Leach, WSU
38. Sumlin, UA
49. MacIntyre, CU
68. Wilcox, Cal
72. Cristobal, UO
86. Smith, OSU
87. Edwards, ASU pic.twitter.com/8vGDUcNeZz
Nationally, Kelly was listed as 19th overall. That is a pretty big vote of confidence for a coach that has been out of the college game for several years, which probably means that the ranking of Kelly is heavily based on his production with the Oregon Ducks from 2009-2012.
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During that time, Kelly’s style of football was a huge topic of conversation as his uptempo pace took college football by storm. Whilst at Eugene, Kelly amassed a 46-7 record, went to a major bowl all four years he was in charge (which included a Rose Bowl win and an appearance in the BCS Championship Game) as well as change the game of college football itself.
But college football has evolved since Kelly was last in control and a lot of teams have figured out how to stop this uptempo style of play. But do not worry as Kelly is an offensive mastermind and should be cooking up some new wrinkles for us to feast on this fall.
But that is the point, Kelly has not done anything with UCLA yet and was still highly ranked, proving that what he did with the Ducks was not just luck and could change the Bruins for the better.
But what will he do with UCLA, exactly? We will most likely see a lot of the same, but expect a few tweaks here and there. For example, when Kelly ran the Philadelphia Eagles, he employed tight ends more than he previously had with any other team.
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Either way, it should be an exciting time in Westwood with the new coach in control.