Chip Kelly gives takeaways from Oregon State loss

The UCLA Bruins squared off against the Oregon State Beavers last Saturday in a contest of top 25 ranked Pac-12 teams. In the end, head coach Chip Kelly could not lead UCLA to an upset victory over the Beavers.

On Monday, the Bruins headman took some time to discuss their loss on the road against Oregon State. And his biggest takeaway from the game was the number of giveaways UCLA had.

“We give up 13 points on three turnovers; we can’t turn the ball over. It was a 12-point game, but we have to do a better job offensively in all phases, especially in the turnover deal. And then all the turnovers came in different ways. We need to protect better, route run better, and we need to throw the ball better,” said Kelly.

“We can’t lose the turnover battle on the road in this conference and expect to win the football game.”

UCLA put up some impressive stats on offense. They were able to outrush Oregon State, winning the battle on the ground 284 to 133. They also had 27 first downs and converted 50 percent of their 3rd down attempts (8-16). Unfortunately, none of that was enough to overcome the three interceptions thrown by freshman quarterback Dante Moore.

Despite the loss, UCLA still remains ranked in the AP Top 25. Up next for the Bruins is another Pac-12 conference test on the road against Stanford. Contrary to Stanford’s record of 2-4 on the season, the Cardinal is a dangerous opponent. And they proved that on Friday with their upset victory on the road against the surprised him on the conference this season Colorado.

Kelly calls Pac-12 realignment sad, believes league should stay together

Kelly has spent 10 years of his head coaching career in the Pac-12 conference, but realignment will change that following this season. Kelly began his career with Oregon in 2009, taking a four-year detour to coach in the NFL before returning to college to coach UCLA in 2018.

However, the Bruins are one of four schools along with Oregon, USC and Washington that will join the Big Ten in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are on to the Big 12, while Cal and Stanford accepted invitations to the ACC.

That spells the end of the league many college sports fans have come to know and love, and Kelly is understandably not a fan. Ahead of a Week 8 game against Stanford, the coach opened up on what his feelings are like heading to play the Cardinal for the last time for the foreseeable future.

“It’s all sad,” he said. “I have feelings on the whole thing. I think that we should all still be together. Some people should be able to work that out. Let’s criticize them. Let’s not criticize the high school athletes. Let’s criticize the people that are making really good money that have put us in this situation.