What a turn of events this was.
Chip Kelly put himself squarely on the hot seat at UCLA by losing 17-7 to an undermanned 2-7 Arizona State team. UCLA could not have played any worse on offense than it did last week versus the Sun Devils. Kelly, whose 2022 UCLA team similarly stepped on a rake in a November home game versus Arizona, once again coughed up a game it had no business losing. That’s the kind of loss that gets a coach fired, especially when he hasn’t won a Pac-12 title or made a Pac-12 Championship game in several seasons at UCLA.
The word on the street this past week was that if UCLA lost to USC, Chip Kelly was gone. Even if he won, insiders weren’t convinced he would be retained. However, late in the week — just 30 hours before kickoff — some UCLA power brokers spoke up about Kelly in a way that suggested he might be brought back for 2024.
After Kelly’s emphatic dismantling of USC and Lincoln Riley, the odds have certainly shifted toward retention. However, we haven’t received any final word or formal announcement from UCLA or its sources. This will be interesting to watch in the next 24 hours. We will keep you posted.
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