Report: UCLA likely to fire head coach Chip Kelly

The UCLA Bruins are likely to fire football head coach Chip Kelly, per Tracy Pierson. Kelly is in the middle of his sixth season with the school.

He currently has a 33-33 record since coming in ahead of the 2018 season. There were moments of success in 2023 under Kelly, including getting to the No. 18 ranking in the AP Poll back in October. As it stands, Kelly is 79-40 as a head coach with Oregon and UCLA.

Sources told Pierson UCLA will likely fire Chip Kelly after this weekend. But if the Bruins win against cross-town rival USC, Kelly could remain through the end of the regular season.

Things were coming up roses for Kelly earlier in the season. After UCLA clinched bowl eligibility with a win over Colorado, the Bruins improved to 6-2.

With that, Kelly received a nice contract bonus by getting UCLA to the postseason. Kelly had to rebuild a Bruins program down in the dumps and finally turned it around in 2021.

He went 8-4 that season and followed it up with a 9-4 season last year, including a Sun Bowl appearance and No. 21 ranking in the final AP Poll.

Buzz was rampant when Kelly landed five-star quarterback Dante Moore on the recruiting trail. However, Kelly juggled multiple quarterbacks in 2023 with Moore starting, as well as Ethan Garbers and Collin Schlee.

In an upset loss to Arizona State November 11, he had to answer why Moore or Garbers didn’t play.

“They were available in emergency situations,” Kelly said. “They’re getting better. They didn’t take, really, many snaps at all this week. They are both working through things. And the decision was made by our medical staff that the best decision was to not play those guys.”

The loss was a bit of a gut punch ahead of rivalry games with USC and Cal.

“I told them that it was on us, as coaches,” Kelly said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of preparing these guys for this football game. We will come back tomorrow. We have a game against the team across town and that will get our full attention, and we will meet tomorrow as a team.”

Now that UCLA could be open, it could be an attractive option for a new coach as the school transitions to the Big Ten beginning in 2024.