Chip Kelly on Dante Moore status: 'He's full-go'

The UCLA Bruins are looking to keep pace in the tightly contested Pac-12 conference. The Bruins are 5-2 on the season and 2-2 in conference play. And in order for them to have a shot at making it to Las Vegas for the championship game in December, Chip Kelly and crew will have to take down Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes in Week 9.

Ahead of Saturday’s contest, Kelly revealed the injury status of his starting quarterback, Dante Moore.

“He’s good. If you watched the game, he played; he got really good towards the end of the week,” said Kelly. “You played those three games that we played in a row, (it) can take a toll on you physically. Playing Utah, Oregon State, (and) Washington State. But he’s, back he’s full go.”

In UCLA’s 42-7 victory over Stanford, Moore was replaced with Ethan Gabers as the starting quarterback, and Kelly provided more light on the situation. Moore, a true freshman, got a full taste of what Pac-12 defenses had to offer, especially playing against the conference’s top two in Utah and Oregon State, getting banged up in the process. But if his starting quarterback was unable to go, Kelly has confidence in both of the signal callers behind him.

“We’re one of the fortunate teams in the country that quarterback. I believe Ethan has started the Power-5 level, Dante’s a starter, and Colin Schlee is a starter. So that’s a luxury that not a lot of people have.”

UCLA vs. Colorado betting odds

The Week 9 matchup between Colorado and UCLA will also pit one of the conference’s top offenses against one of the best defenses. And as it currently stands, FanDuel has UCLA opening as a 17.5-point favorite over the Buffaloes in the matchup. The over/under is set at 63.5.

Colorado enters Week 9 after taking a break from action with a bye in Week 8. Before their bye week, the Buffaloes found themselves on the wrong end of an upset as they were stunned at home by the Stanford Cardinal, losing 46-43 in overtime. That dropped Colorado to 4-3 on the season and 1-3 in conference play.

While Colorado had the weekend off, UCLA was in action against the same team that just took down the Buffaloes: Stanford. Against the Cardinal, the Bruins’ defense stuffed Stanford’s offense on the way to a 42-7 win.

With the win, UCLA moved to 5-2 on the season and 2-2 in the Pac-12. As mentioned above, the Bruins’ defense has been pivotal to their success this season. UCLA’s defense is 11th in the country in yards allowed and is only behind Oregon in the Pac-12 in passing and scoring defense. But for as good as their defense is, so is UCLA’s rushing attack. Running backs Carson Steele and T.J. Harden have been a nightmare for opponents to slow down, much less stop.