Chip Kelly credits defensive staff after UCLA victory in LA Bowl

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly led the Bruins to the first bowl win of his six-year tenure with the program on Saturday, defeating Boise State in the Starco Brands LA Bowl 35-22.

December comes with various responsibilities and challenges in college football for head coaches, and one that Kelly had to combat was the loss of his defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who accepted a job in the same role at USC following the regular season.

UCLA’s defensive line and outside linebackers coach Ikaika Malloe stepped up and served as the Bruins’ interim defensive coordinator for the bowl game, as he and the remainder of the defensive staff crafted and executed a successful game plan on Saturday night. And following the game, Kelly gave his defensive staff their flowers for the job they did.

“Yeah Ikaika did a great job, but I think that entire defensive staff did,” Kelly said. “It was awesome to play in this bowl game, but from a coaching perspective, it’s probably you didn’t want to because of the date of the game.”

“This was a week of recruiting, our kids were in finals, Ethan [Garbers] missed two days this week because he had finals. He had two on Thursday, I’m talking to him over the phone asking him how he did in his finals and then also trying to ask him what routes he likes. But there was a lot of things going on, but I think our defensive staff did an unbelievable job with Ikaika, Ken Norton Jr., Brian Norwood stepped up.”

The roles and responsibilities of UCLA’s defensive staff increased following Lynn’s exit from the program, including with some of the Bruins’ analysts. But they all managed to dial up an impressive game plan that held the Broncos till just one touchdown until they scored another on their final offensive drive of the night when the win was already in hand for the Bruins.

“We had a chance to take two of our analysts, because we lost three coaches. Clancy Pendergast did an unbelievable job, Greg Burns did an unbelievable job, that entire group. And I think our coaching staff reflects our players, the old adage it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit,” Kelly explained. “I think the entire defensive group put together a special game plan and I was really really happy with how they did it.”

Kelly is in the process of finding the Bruins’ next defensive coordinator, but following the most recent performance from his defense, the man for the job may already be in the building for UCLA.