After six seasons, Chip Kelly’s time as head coach of the UCLA Bruins will reportedly be coming to an end.
On Tuesday, Bruin Report, UCLA’s 247Sports site, reported that the former Oregon head coach will likely be fired if UCLA loses to the USC Trojans this weekend. If not, UCLA will wait until after next week’s season finale against the California Golden Bears.
UCLA and Kelly have taken back-to-back awful losses against the Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils in the past two weeks, taking the team from 6-2 to 6-4 and, per Bruin Report, advancing UCLA’s intention to fire Kelly.
In 66 games as head coach of the Bruins, Kelly currently sits at 33-33 and 25-25 in Pac-12 play. He has taken UCLA to two bowl games, the 2021 Holiday Bowl (canceled due to COVID) and the 2022 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, where the Bruins lost 37-35 to the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Before taking the job at UCLA, Kelly spent three years as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and one year as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He went 28-35 as an NFL head coach and 2-14 in the one year with the 49ers.
Kelly originally made his name with the Oregon Ducks. Kelly was promoted to head coach from offensive coordinator following Mike Bellotti’s promotion to athletic director, and Kelly found tremendous success at the helm. In his four seasons as head coach, Oregon finished with at least a share of the Pac-12 regular season championship, made it to two Rose Bowls, a Fiesta Bowl, and were runners-up in the 2011 BCS National Championship game.
Social media had a lot to say about the report.
Record against winning teams
Justin Wilcox at Cal: 6-31
Chip Kelly at UCLA: 6-28 https://t.co/Jz5RanvwD5— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 15, 2023
I don't care if UCLA lets Chip Kelly coach through the USC game if they think that gives them the best chance to win it so long as they are absolutely committed to firing him. I don't trust them not to squirm out of it if they win, though.
— Ryan Rosenblatt (@RyanRosenblatt) November 14, 2023
Chip Kelly – YOU are a Texas A&M Aggie https://t.co/Vsy0jh7b5t
— Fletcher Keel (@FletchTopper) November 14, 2023
There were three high points of the Chip Kelly era:
*Day he was hired
*Day he beat LSU in 2021 and the six days after when it felt meaningful.
*Game Day on campus.Those were the only sustained moments this felt good or cool or interesting.
— David Woods (@daviddavidwoods) November 14, 2023
