The first year of the Chip Kelly era with the UCLA football team took on many variations but by season’s end, we were able to see what exactly the first year coach will take into his second year.
The UCLA football team you knew in 2017 was a nothing like the UCLA football team in 2018. Not just because Chip Kelly was in charge, but rather, personnel was different and that had a huge effect on how the Bruins would perform under their new coach.
Today, we will look at what the UCLA offense started out with and what they eventually transformed into by season’s end.
On September 1, 2018, Kelly presented his new offense to the world against Cincinnati. It did not go well. Michigan transfer Wilton Speight was this year’s starting quarterback and whatever plan Kelly had for him, needed to be altered immediately.
In the second quarter of that game, Speight was hit and injured, prompting the Dorian Thompson-Robinson era to begin early. Though he showed promise, he also was not able to move the offense as it sputtered out of the starting gate, but it was not all on him. The running game lagged. The O-line was not able to get a push. Balls were being dropped. It was as if Jim Mora never left.
Fans were perplexed. This resembled nothing like what Kelly did at Oregon. It was not fast. It was not innovative, it was something that resulted in a loss. Five actually, to start the season.
UCLA Roster Changes in 2018
- QBs: 3 new, 3 returning
- RBs: 3 new, 5 returning
- TEs: 3 new, 5 returning
- WRs: 6 new, 6 returning
- OLs: 9 new, 6 returning
But this was not Oregon. As the season progressed, we slowly found out that what Kelly was doing at UCLA was nothing like what Kelly did at Oregon. It was more. Still, it took time.
Over the next four games, the Bruins would show flashes of greatness but also struggled mightily. The run never really took off despite a carousel of runners, the passing game was not exactly effective, and QB play was up in the air from week to week with Speight’s injury and DTR learning on the job.
It did not manifest into anything special, but from time to time, we would see interesting little tweaks that Kelly would insert. Not that it would be the basis for the foundation of the coach’s latest style, but it would help him understand what is working with formations, personnel, and execution.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
In the first third of the season, Kelly tinkered with 21 personnel (2 RBs, 1 TE), but left it alone after the Colorado game (week 4). As the season went on, the 13 personnel would be a big hit, especially when it came to the run game which started improve, especially when Kelly focused on Joshua Kelley as the premier running back.
In addition, the Bruins started to mesh with DTR running things. The offense continued to sputter, but it was improving. In Game 5 against Washington at the Rose Bowl, UCLA surprised the eventual Pac-12 North winner. DTR threw for 272 yards and led the Bruins to an energized second half effort which had them outscore the Huskies, 17-7, the first time they would dominate the second half that season.
The offense was moving forward and would have a big game the next time they took the field, but let us quickly go back two games to Colorado. It was Game 4 of the season and the last of the suspensions expired the week before, which meant that a player like Boss Tagaloa was again eligible to play (seven players were suspended at the start of the season with punishments ranging from 1-3 games). Tagaloa came in as the Bruins’ starting center on the offensive line. The last time he took the field was in 2017… as a defensive lineman. His insertion into the line did wonders for UCLA and was the start of something that would help open the floodgates for the Bruins, especially, Joshua Kelley and the running game.
Kelley was named as the starting RB along with Bolu Olorunfunmi for the first several games, yet did not play a single down against Fresno State. He then made an appearance the next week against Colorado and made the most of it. In that game, he ran for 124 yards, the first of four straight 100-yard rushing games and a total of six for the season which culminated with 289 against USC, which we will get into in a minute.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
In Game 6, UCLA traveled up to Cal, a place where they have not exactly been successful, yet they had their best game of the season at that point. The Bruins put together their best rushing game as Kelley and DTR (who Kelly said would not do a whole lot of running in practice that week), helped the Bruins gain 207 yards on the ground. DTR also had a solid passing performance with 142 yards. We saw in that game how the run led to the passing game opening up. Getting downfield seemed easy for the Bruins after that. Correction: easier.
It was also in that game where we started to see multiple looks with tight ends. Kelly used an 11 personnel, but also a 12 and 13 (that is right, one running back and three tight ends). Kelly had been using an unbalanced O-line for a couple weeks (players loaded to the play side) to help overload and get extra blockers to help advance the ball. It helped as Cal had no answer for this ever-evolving offense.
"Go Joe Bruin writer Chris Osgood did the Herculean task of logging every single play the UCLA football team ran this season. Click HERE to check out his Google Document."
It got a bit harder the next week against Arizona. Though the Bruins pulled out the victory, they had to scramble once again to put together a proper game plan. It also did not help that DTR was injured in the game. Speight was back in under center and we saw how Kelly shifted his plan from run-heavy to pass-heavy with the grad transfer in the game. UCLA won 31-30, but it would get much harder and sloppier after that point.
On a Friday night in the Arroyo Seco, UCLA welcomed Utah to the Rose Bowl in Game 7 and the Utes blasted the Bruins 41-10. It was not good, mostly because of mistakes which haunted them in this game… and the rest of the season. In that game and the next two against Oregon and Arizona State, UCLA would essentially shoot themselves in the foot with a plethora of miscues in these three straight losses.
It was not just the offense that had issues. The defense and special teams played a big part in the setback, which is unfortunate as the Bruins were finding nuggets of success here and there. Unfortunately, it did not lead to more wins.
Things changed when it came time to play USC in the annual crosstown rivalry game. Despite a 2-8 record, many believed the Bruins could take down the 5-5 Trojans. They were right. This came down to coaching and execution and UCLA was better than USC in both areas.
It was also the Joshua Kelley break out party.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
With a game plan that heavily relied on the run, depsite Kelly looking to pass the ball more with Speight in the game, UCLA ran all over the Trojans. UCLA ran the ball 64% of the time (second highest since Cal, 71%), so you can see that a dedicated Kelly run game can do some damage. UCLA put everything on the Trojans: outside zone read, inside zone read, non-mesh runs, options… Kelly kept it fresh. Aside from the outside zone read, every run play was successful.
We also saw Kelly bust out the unbalanced offensive line formation which, as previously stated, overloaded one side of the line. What did this result in? Joshua Kelley running for 289 yards on USC. With UCLA pulling guards to the play side, Kelley was able to find several open holes which lead to big runs of 55 and 61 yards. It was the most rushing yards any player has ever put up in the crosstown rivalry. The run game had arrived with an exclamation point. UCLA had their third win of the season heading into the finale against Stanford.
That game was different. Kelly said that he saw Stanford stack the box and was dedicated to stopping the run, which explains why Kelley only had 55 rushing yards and the offense as a whole collected 62 total. Sure, that might seem bad, but not when you consider Wilton Speight threw for 466 yards, giving UCLA a grand total of 528, the most they were able to put on an opponent this season. UCLA also scored 42 points, another first for 2018.
If UCLA showed they can run against USC, they showed they can pass against Stanford, both good signs going forward.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
Because there has been a focus on running the ball, the passing/receiving game seemed secondary in most games, but that doesn’t mean it was not effective, especially with players like Caleb Wilson and Theo Howard helping to move it along.
There was some uproar at the beginning of the season as it was perceived that Wilson was not targeted enough. In the first four games, Wilson only caught for 141 yards, getting a high of 92 against Oklahoma (which means he only caught for 50 in the other three). Things changed starting with Game 5 as he had 102 yards against Washington. In every game until the end of the season, he never had anything lower than 62 yards. His biggest game came against Arizona State when he had 164 yards on 11 catches with two touchdowns. He finished the season as the Bruins’ top pass catcher with 965 yards.
The Bruins had another stellar receiver in their midst as Theo Howard, who did not drop a single ball this season, was just as effective as Wilson. Howard had made great strides this year under Kelly and the development showed. Aside from three games where he did not get more than 23 yards, in the other nine games, he did not get less than 51, peaking out at 88 against Stanford.
So with this, we can see that Chip Kelly can put together an effective run and pass game. If anything, from what we saw on a week-to-week basis, he is going to mix it up depending on his opponent. If he sees deficits in an opponents rush defense, he will run the ball down their throat. If he goes against a team that will look to stop the run, he’ll just make his team go airborne.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
This is what we should expect from UCLA next season. There will be no Oregon 2.0, that is apparent. What we will see is UCLA 1.0 with Kelly.
There are those that are disheartened by the 3-9 record UCLA posted this season. You have to look past that. You have to see what Kelly was doing from game to game this season and if you do, there is a lot that will have you beaming for 2019.
Lets us take a look at what happened with the Bruins’ offense in each third of the season.
| UCLA in 2018 | First 4 Games | Middle 4 games | Last 4 games |
| Record | 0-4 | 2-2 | 1-3 |
| Points/Game | 17.0 | 25.5 | 31.3 |
| Total Yards | 311.3 | 380.3 | 485.5 |
| 3rd Down Conv. | 30.4% | 41.9% | 40.4% |
What have we been saying here at GJB, especially in the later part of the season? There is progress. In the Bruins’ first four games (Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Fresno State, and Colorado), many UCLA football fans did not have a lot of hope and we can see why. They couldn’t move the ball, they couldn’t get into the end zone, and they were not extending drives.
But something started to change in the next four (Washington, Cal, Arizona, and Utah). Though the Bruins were thoroughly beat down by Utah, there was progress in the other three games, especially since UCLA finally won, not just one, but two games. The experiment was starting to produce the results Kelly (and fans) were looking for, but it was only the beginning.
Depsite only getting one win in the last four games (Oregon, ASU, USC, and Stanford), the Bruins were in each game and it can be argued that they had a chance to win the other three. More importantly, with the offense finally shaping into what Kelly imagined, numbers shot up, especially in points and total yards.
UCLA, on average, was scoring over 16 more points in the last four games as opposed to the first four. Additionally, they were tacking on nearly 175 more total yards per game (a big shout out to the offensive line for this progress). How does the saying go? Oh yeah… trust the process.
Where does the offense go from here? (cont.)
“So where do we go from here? Just about anywhere!” -REFUSED
The only thing that is certain with the offense next year is that the UCLA football team will lose QB Wilton Speight. Other than that, if no one declares for the NFL Draft early, the Bruins return nearly every O-lineman, Dorian Thompson-Robinson will take over the offense, Kelley will guide the running game with the help of Martell Irby and Kazmeir Allen, the receiving game has Caleb Wilson (stay one more year, yeah?), Theo Howard and up-and-comers Chase Cota, Michael Ezeike, Devin Asiasi, and Kyle Phillips, just to name a few.
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So the roster is stacked. That is the first bit of good news. The second is the fact that Chip Kelly will continue to tinker with his offense. In Year 1, Kelly was working with players that did not exactly fit his scheme, but he made it work as he used their skills to his advantage.
Along with continually reshaping his offense game-to-game, expect him to reshape it from season-to-season, especially when he starts to bring in more and more of “his players”.
Speaking of game plan, what will Kelly do? honest answer, I have no clue, but if 2018 was any indication, it looks like he is going to utilize both the run and pass to get his team downfield. UCLA was able to get a lot of yards on the ground (see USC) and throw for a ton of yards (see Stanford), so the options are limitless.
What it boils down to is that Kelly is making this a numbers game. Kelly is going to use different looks, pre-snap motions, formations, players, and plays to try and get an advantage over his opponents. If there is an advantage in the box, he will run. If the open space benefits him, look for the Bruins to go to the air.
The 2018 season was a roller coaster, but we can expect 2019 to be a little more consistent, especially since the Bruins return a lot of players that know how to run the system. That is why Phase (Year) 2 of the Chip Kelly project at UCLA should be very exciting to watch.