The shockwaves around the UCLA Bruins football program on Friday were at an all-time high. After Bill O’Brien took the head coach job at Boston College, Chip Kelly left the program to take the OC job at Ohio State.
It sure left a sour taste in the mouth of UCLA fans, and for good reason.
The timing of the departure is a horrible look for Kelly and makes it difficult for UCLA to find a viable replacement.
Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times had no reservations and made his feelings known in a column released on Friday. There is a TON to unpack, and it’s well worth the read (and a subscription, also).
But, here’s just a small tidbit of what Plaschke said about Kelly’s stunning departure:
Classy. Professional. Disgusting…I told UCLA to fire him. I begged UCLA to fire him. At the end of the season I wrote a column saying that UCLA had to fire him…Regardless, by leaving when he did, Kelly made Jarmond look like a fool. He made his players look like suckers. He made the Bruins fans look like bigger suckers….The truth is that the entire UCLA athletic community got played. The reality is that Chip Kelly was a complete phony.
Plaschke is speaking for the vast majority of UCLA fans: It’s a horrible move by Kelly. Surely, he is going to become a name that stirs up fans for years to come.
Look, Kelly has every right to do what he wants. If he wants to call plays for Ryan Day at Ohio State, so be it. If he wanted an NFL OC job, that’s fine. But, don’t wait around for months, strike out on players in the portal and signing day, and then leave the program high and dry after the portal closed and the top candidates found new homes.
Where do they go now? Which players enter the portal? Where does UCLA go from here?
There are more questions than answers.