Chip Kelly reveals punter-kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira will play for UCLA in Sun Bowl despite entering transfer portal

Despite recently announcing he will enter the transfer portal, UCLA kicker and punter Nicholas Barr-Mira will still play in the Sun Bowl against Pittsburgh, Bruins coach Chip Kelly revealed Sunday.

After joining the team in 2019, Barr-Mira has been a starter for the Bruins for the past three years, finishing fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring in 2021. The redshirt junior handled both special teams duties for the Bruins in 2022.

So far this season, Barr-Mira is 15-of-21 on his field goal attempts and a perfect 56-of-56 on extra points. He is also averaging 43.7 yards per punt in 22 attempts, with eight of those kicks pinning the opponents inside their own 20-yard line.

Kickoff for the Sun Bowl between UCLA and Pittsburgh is set for 2 p.m. ET on Dec. 30 in El Paso. The game will be televised on CBS.

Sun Bowl preview

With the regular season over and conference championships complete, bowl season is upon us in college football. The playoff field was set earlier today. Now, each remaining eligible team will be placed into a bowl slot across the country.

Per the announcement today, both UCLA and Pittsburgh have now learned where they’ll be facing off this postseason as they’ll meet in El Paso for the ‘Tony The Tiger’ Sun Bowl.

The Bruins finished as the higher-ranked team between the two as they were set at No. 18 in the final CFP rankings. Chip Kelly’s 9-3 squad competed throughout the season in the Pac-12. The problem is they stumbled late as they went 3-3 over their final six. Still, UCLA had one of the nation’s most explosive offensive units. Behind the numbers of QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the Bruins scored an average of 39.6 points per game.

As for the Panthers, they never regained a ranking after starting 3-2 on the season. They recovered down the stretch, though, to finish the year at 8-4. QB Kedon Slovis struggled in place of the NFL-bound Kenny Pickett with 10 touchdowns to go with his nine interceptions. However, RB Israel Abanikanda put the program on his back with 1,431 rushing yards and an NCAA-leading 21 total touchdowns.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.