Chip Kelly speaks on the benefits of recruiting transfer portal prospects

The NCAA transfer portal has added yet another task for college football head coaches to take on in the month of December. But UCLA head coach Chip Kelly made it very clear that he’s still a fan of recruiting through the portal.

Kelly joined the Big Ten Network on National Signing Day to talk about his latest high school recruiting class, but he was also asked to describe the way he sees and uses the transfer portal for the UCLA program.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of success with the transfer portal,” Kelly said. “I think it’s a tool that’s available to student-athletes that if they’re not happy with where they are, they get an opportunity to try to see if there’s something else out there for them.”

The production Kelly has seen from his transfer players has been impressive, but what he’s also enjoyed is the process of recruiting players from the transfer portal compared to high school prospects. As he explained the difference between the recruiting processes of the two.

“I think the one difference between transfer kids and high school kids is there’s a little bit more sense of urgency from them. They only have a year or two left in their eligibility so they’re maybe not as much about the fluff than they are about what’s the nuts and bolts of why you go to college,” Kelly explained. “And we’re about two things here, we’re about books and ball, and we got kids that contact us once they go in the portal or we reach out to them that are very serious about the degree that they can attain here and very serious about the level of football that they want to play.”

Kelly seems to enjoy the more straight forward nature of recruiting players that already have college experience. And this past season he’s surely enjoyed what he’s seen on the field from his transfer players as well.

“So I think I like it because of the urgency that the recruits have coming out of the portal, and they’re very crystal clear of what they’re looking for and if we can help provide that then it’s a great match,” Kelly said. “And the kids that we’ve had success with, Laiatu Latu was the best defensive player in the country last year, he was a transfer for us. Our quarterback Ethan Garbers right now was a transfer, local kid that went away that came back home. Darius Muasau was our best inside linebacker, an all-conference player, he was a transfer from Hawaii.”

Even the Bruins’ leading rusher this past season Carson Steele was a product of the transfer portal, joining the team last offseason. But Kelly also knows about the importance of signing and developing high-level high school talent, which he believes pairs nicely with new, experienced players through the transfer portal.

“So we’ve had a lot of success with kids in the portal and I think that sense of urgency that they show up with, I like it. I like it a lot and I think it’s a great way to complement the high school kids that you bring in,” Kelly concluded.