Chip Kelly reveals how NIL, transfer portal has impacted his approach to coaching

Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins’ season has come to a close, but that hasn’t prevented the coach from speaking his mind.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Kelly dropped some knowledge regarding the transfer portal and NIL. While many coaches have changed due to these developments, Kelly believes he’s stayed the course, and is better for it.

“No, and I think if you have standards, if you make sure the players understand the standards before they get there,” Kelly said, regarding whether or not his coaching approach has changed. “One of the reasons for the transfer portal in my opinion is that kids get recruited one way, and they’re like, ‘This guy was a dawg when he was recruiting me, I loved him,’ and then he gets on the field and he’s a totally different person. I think you have to be the same and you have to be consistent in your approach. If that’s something that players gravitate to, then you’re going to get them. If that’s not what they’re looking for, then you’re not going to get them. But getting a player that doesn’t want to be at your place isn’t good for him, it isn’t good for you either.

“So I think if you articulate on the front end, kind of how we do things and what’s expected here, what our standard is. I think Mike Tomlin says it the best, ‘You’ve got to have a standard,’ and if we have a standard and we live up to the standard, that’s what it’s about. I’ve always done that. If you set the standard, I think people try to live up to a standard. If you tell them about rules, people try to break rules.”

Regardless, Kelly would like to see college football implement a fairer schedule, as the portal specifically hurts many teams come bowl season.

“I think the schedule is crazy – even for coaches. Everyone says, ‘I can’t believe they’re not playing in the bowl game’. Well, there are coaches that are not coaching in the bowl games either,” added Kelly. “The schedule is wack. You don’t know who is on your team, you don’t know which coaches are around. Boise (State) had new coaches, we had new coaches. Boise lost players, we lost players.”

Alas, it remains to be seen what changes are made in the future, but Chip Kelly is giving his opinion on the matter, and it’s one that the college football world may want to listen to.