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UCLA Football: With 2018 over, where does UCLA go from here?

By Mike Regalado

PASADENA, CA - NOVEMBER 24: Bobby Okereke #20 and Malik Antoine #3 of the Stanford Cardinal chase Caleb Wilson #81 of the UCLA Bruins on this 66 yard pass play during the second half of a game at the Rose Bowl on November 24, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - NOVEMBER 24: Bobby Okereke #20 and Malik Antoine #3 of the Stanford Cardinal chase Caleb Wilson #81 of the UCLA Bruins on this 66 yard pass play during the second half of a game at the Rose Bowl on November 24, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /
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The first year of the Chip Kelly era with UCLA Football is over and there is a lot to take in from this season. Go Joe Bruin begins a season-ending series in which we look closely at the various parts of the team in anticipation for the 2019 season.

It is over UCLA football fans. 2018 has come and gone, but before you know it, 2019 will soon be here. Ok, it will actually take a while, but that is a good thing as the Chip Kelly Bruins will use that time to prepare for Phase (Year) 2

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This season did not go as many had hoped. With the hiring of Kelly, many thought UCLA would immediately take off. What we soon learned was that it was going to take time.

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Even before the Bruins’ season opener against Cincinnati, the Bruins lost a lot of players and replaced them with freshmen, transfers, and walk-ons. Even though the cupboard wasn’t bare, it wasn’t deep.

Injuries also added to the false start at season’s commencement. The Bruins already had issues with a few position groups (offensive line and linebackers, primarily), so a lot of Kelly’s game plan was altered and the master plan was going to take a while to install.

UCLA would also do without several key players as a group of vets were suspended for the first three weeks. So by Game 1, the Bruins did not have half the roster they ended the previous season with.

Because of this and the weekly tinkering of Kelly’s new system, the Bruins sputtered, starting 0-5. In those games, there was a lot that did not work, but what did, brought hope to both the Bruin faithful and Kelly. The small glimmers of hope helped fans and analyst take solace in the fact that what Kelly was doing was right.

Going from using multiple running backs to just Joshua Kelly. The offensive line struggling at the start of the season to helping the offense gain over 500 yards in their season finale against Stanford. The run defense, though not great, made massive improvements. There was hope.

But that hope did not come without the need to improve in other areas. With Dorian Thompson-Robinson likely taking over, he has to improve on a few things to continue to lift this team. The defense has to figure out how to create an effective pass rush. The secondary took a few steps back this year so that situation needs to be addressed. And special teams… well they need to find a way to be special again.

Kelly has plenty of time to figure this all out, 278 days to be specific. That is when the Bruins head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats to begin 2019.

Between now and then he will continue to tinker and we here at Go Joe Bruin will continue to analyze and predict what is to come.

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This series will continue on Monday when we take a look at the Bruins’ offense and project where Kelly is going from here. After that, we will look at the defense, special teams, coaching, schedule, roster/depth chart, and recruiting. Though the 2018 season just ended, 2019 has already started for us.