UCLA Football Fall Camp 2018: Bruins have a need for speed

The UCLA football team shows no signs of slowing down, which is something we expected from Chip Kelly. We also look at a few injuries accruing on the team.

According to the Washington Post, the fast-football craze shows signs of fading. Apparently, no one told UCLA football coach Chip Kelly as he seems to be getting his team to go faster.

RELATED: Podcast – What’s Bruin Show – UCLA Football Talk with Ben Bolch

Last week, speedster running back Keegan Jones committed to UCLA. Our own writer Michael Hanna wrote about how he will not only be a huge commodity in Kelly’s offense but used a tagline from ‘Top Gun’ to describe Kelly’s philosophy about his team. “They got the need… the need for speed.”

More from Go Joe Bruin

• UCLA Football: It’s time for the nation to meet Dante Moore
• UCLA Football: Where are they ranked heading into week 4
• UCLA Football: Position battle breakdown for Utah showdown
• UCLA vs. Utah: Location, time, prediction, and more
• UCLA Football: Highlights from Chip Kelly’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show

That seems to be what is going on with the Bruins during fall camp as things are getting turned up a notch.

Kelly was known for having his Oregon teams run at breakneck speed during his tenure and we saw glimpses of that with the Bruins in spring, but that was just the beginning.

During the March portion of spring ball, I had clocked the time between snaps to be about 20 seconds. In a recent practice, Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Daily News wrote that “the Bruins were running as fast as 15 seconds per play at times.”

Clearly, the Kelly doesn’t read the Washington Post.

Kelly and his staff are not only running a tight ship but an efficient one at that. A ship that has all hands on deck and running plays over and over in a very short time. Even special teams are moving at lightning speed as there were “23 combined field goal attempts between four kickers in five minutes.”

Kelly is evolving both this team and his philosophy at a very fast pace and everyone is just going to have to get used to it.

But it is not just the offense that is moving quickly as the defense is moving with a lot more effort as well. Though their way of moving might be described as a bit more “violent”.

At Pac-12 Media Day, Kelly said that the defense needs to be good if UCLA is going to be good. With the Bruins ranking 122nd in total defense in 2017, (487.3 yards given up) things need to change drastically if the defense and the team are going to be good again.

From what it looks like, they are well on their way.

Personnel Notes

On Tuesday, freshman OL Chris Murray tweeted out a picture of himself taking snaps with the caption “New number #76 and new position”. Could he move up to be the starting center? That position was held by Boss Tagaloa and Zack Sweeney during spring.

Injury Report

• DL Atonio Mafi remains in a yellow jersey as he is recovering from an Achilles injury, though he is going through drills with the defense.
• DB Colin Samuel has apparently suffered a right leg injury.
• DL Otito Ogbonnia (unknown) and WR Audie Omotosho (hamstring) were also in yellow non-contact jerseys.