UCLA Football: Is Chip Kelly the best college coach in Los Angeles?

With Chip Kelly now in charge of the UCLA football program, things are getting knocked up a notch, especially the crosstown rivalry with USC. So with that in mind, is Kelly a better coach than Clay Helton?

The UCLA football team is a completely different program from what they ended the 2017 season with. Though we have just under two weeks to actually see what incantations head coach Chip Kelly has made in transforming this team, it should be special none the less.

And why is that? Because Kelly has proven himself as a successful college football coach. During his four years as head coach at Oregon from 2009-12, he accumulated a 46-7 record. In the two years before that as the Ducks’ offensive coordinator, Oregon went 19-7. Pretty impressive.

But does that make him the best college football coach in the city of L.A.? Clearly, I am looking at the comparison between Kelly and USC head coach Clay Helton. Let us quickly look at both coach’s accomplishments.

Chip Kelly’s Head Coaching Accomplishments

Record: 46-7 (86.8%)
Pac-12 Championships: 3
Bowls: Rose Bowl x2 (L/W), BCS National Championship (L), Fiesta Bowl (W)
Bowl Record: 2-2
National Title Appearances: 1 (2011)

Clay Helton’s Head Coaching Accomplishments

Record: 26-10 (72.2%)
Pac-12 Championships: 1
Bowls: Holiday Bowl (L), Rose Bowl (W), Cotton Bowl (L)
Bowl Record: 1-2
National Title Appearances: 0

Though these stats were accumulated at different times and it is a given that times have changed, Kelly is the more accomplished coach, but is he better than Helton?

When he was at Oregon, Kelly dominated. Not only did he build a winning culture, he did it with players that were previously under the radar. Kelly made a point to develop players and bring out their potential.

Helton has done a great job at USC, especially when he had to take over and clean up Steve Sarkisian’s mess. Though he has had a few bumps in the road (picking Max Browne over Sam Darnold, a bad loss at Notre Dame and the Cotton Bowl debacle against Ohio State), Helton has captured a Rose Bowl Championship and a Pac-12 Championship. But things get a lot tougher for Helton in 2018.

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The main thing he has to worry about is who will take over for the strong-armed Darnold and will they have the same success? If he can ride these choppy waves and keep USC as an elite program without Darnold, he will, in fact, prove that he is a great coach.

That could also be said for Kelly, especially with his QB situation. Things will not be pretty with Josh Rosen gone and having to choose between five QBs to run his offense, things are up in the air. There are clearly issues Kelly has to deal with, but when it is all said and done, is Kelly a better coach than Helton?

2018 is going to bring about a new era in the Crosstown Showdown. Chip Kelly is going to bring a lot of intrigue and excitement to the Bruins and when they finally play USC on November 17, it will definitely be a battle.

But can UCLA defeat USC? Last season, the Trojans were head and shoulders better than the Bruins, yet UCLA gave USC a hell of a fight but came up just short in a 28-23 loss. So what will happen this year?

Next. UCLA Football: 10 bold predictions for the 2018 season. dark

UCLA is going to be prepared for every game they enter and when it comes time to battle the Trojans, it seems that Kelly and the Bruins could have the edge, especially at the Rose Bowl. But we will see by mid-November. There is still a lot of football to be played between now and then.