Chip Kelly lists what stood out to him on film of USC game

In their last time facing off as members of the Pac-12 conference, the UCLA Bruins punished the USC Trojans in Week 12. The Bruins controlled the game from the opening kickoff, never once trailing USC on their way to a 38-20 victory.

And now that their biggest rivalry game is in the rearview mirror, head coach Chip Kelly and UCLA can turn their attention to their final game of the season and in the Pac-12 against the California Golden Bears. But before they do, the Bruins headman shared what he liked about UCLA’s dominating performance over USC.

“Yeah, our overall team in all phases,” said Kelly. “I think we have five touchbacks. Our punt team had a down on the nine (and) down one. Special teams did a really nice job. Our defense coming up with three takeaways was an outstanding job; two caused fumbles and the interception by Devin [Kirkwood].

I think both sides of the ball complemented each other. We ran the ball well against them. I think T.J. [Harden] had 142. [Ethan] Garbers kept some players alive on third down. He made some big runs on third down, but I think we stayed on schedule. We converted in the redzone. So, everything we talked about trying to get accomplished going into that game that we knew we had to do, we did.

UCLA played a balanced and complimentary game against USC, rushing for 199 yards and passing for 155 for 354 yards of total offense. Not only that, but the Bruins were 13-12 on 3rd downs while holding the Trojans to 4-13. As Kelly mentioned, UCLA won the turnover battle 3-0 and also beat USC in time of possession: 32:34 to 27:26.

Kelly responds to reports about his job security

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.