To learn more about Oregon State's opponent this weekend, BeaversEdge.com chatted with BruinBlitz publisher Rick Kimbrel, who covers the UCLA Bruins.
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1. We’re nearing the year and a half point in the Chip Kelly experiment in Westwood. What’s your take on what he’s done for the program since his arrival and are things moving in the right direction?
There was much anticipation and hope that the UCLA football program that has been mired in mediocrity for most of this century. This once-proud program that you could count on to play meaningful bowl games in January hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl in January since 1999. When Kelly was hired there was a sense of euphoria that UCLA is finally going to get back into the game of big-time college football. Here we sit in the first week of October of 2019. Kelly’s Bruins have a combined from last season to the present moment of 4-13. That is not what Bruin fans had expected when Kelly signed on as UCLA’s head coach. On paper it is hard to say the program is going in the right direction being 4-13, but to be fair 30-plus scholarship players have left the program since Kelly’s arrival by either medically retiring, leaving on their own volition or other reasons, including the entire OL recruiting class of 2017, and that is probably the reason that the Bruins are starting two true freshmen on the left side of the offensive line. Kelly is building a new foundation from the ground up and it is taking longer than anticipated. The fanbase is losing their patience.
