Chip Kelly responds to reports about his job security, conversation with AD
Ahead of the battle of LA, it was reported that UCLA head coach Chip Kelly would likely not be the Bruins head coach at the end of the season. But after the performance and beat down that UCLA put on USC, that decision is likely on hold.
After the Bruins’ 38-20 victory over the Trojans, Kelly took to the podium and revealed whether or not the rumors swirling around his job security impacted him.
“Not an issue for me,” said Kelly. “I’ve never been governed by the fear of what other people say, and the lessons that this game has taught me is that there’s gonna be highs and there’s gonna be lows. And you gotta lean into the lows, embrace them, and then you just gotta go to work.”
If the rumors did bother or impact Kelly, no one on the outside would have noticed as he had his Bruins ready to take on the challenge of stopping the Trojans’ high-octane offense led by quarterback Caleb Williams.
Kelly didn’t stop at just discussing whether or not it bothered him. The UCLA head coach also revealed there were conversations he had with others within the Bruins athletic department reassuring him of his status, including a message from Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond.
“Josh [Rebholz] came over the other day and said, ‘Hey, there’s a report about this, and Martin [Jarmond] told me it was inaccurate, inappropriate. I don’t pay attention to that stuff, I don’t read that stuff, I never see that stuff. I talk about being emotionally prepared and least distracted; why would I let something distract me? And then, if that’s the case, then I’m a fool because I’m not doing what I tell our players to do.
“You can see by the performance today it didn’t bother the team. I never talked to the team about it, never talked to our coaches about it. We’re just fortunate. We’re all blessed that we get to play this sport. And every day that we get to coach it, I’m the happiest man in the world.”
UCLA now sits at 7-4 on the year. And although Kelly and company will come up short of making the Pac-12 title game, he led them to a victory in arguably the most consequential game of the season for the Bruins. Not only did UCLA beat USC, but they did it in a dominating fashion and in the Trojans home stadium.