SMQB: After Years of Stubbornness, Chip Kelly Seems to Shows Some Flexibility, But Was That Really the Case?

No one saw last night's quarterback change coming.

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly (Photo Credit: uclabruins.com)

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Who was that guy on the UCLA sideline last night?

It sure looked like Chip Kelly, but I’m now convinced that he has a twin brother whose name is Trip Kelly.

Why?

Because after watching Chip for five and a half seasons, I’m certain that there’s no way that Chip would have considered starting Ethan Garbers over Dante Moore last night.

Through his first five seasons in Westwood, Kelly had displayed an insane stubbornness with respect to the quarterback position. No matter how poorly DTR played, and there were plenty of times when DTR played poorly, nothing seemed to affect Kelly’s decision to start the same guy the following week.

Well, now, we know what the limit appears to be: Turning the ball over and having those turnovers generate enough points for the opponent that the Bruins could have won the game if any one of those turnovers might have been the difference between a win and a loss.

That happened last week when Moore’s three first half turnovers resulted in 17 points for Oregon State.

How confident was I that nothing would be changed for this week?

I was so confident about it that I wrote:

Chip Kelly would never consider [changing quarterbacks] and it’s why Kelly won’t start either Schlee or Garbers next week against Stanford, despite still listing Moore, Garbers and Schlee as “OR” on the UCLA depth chart.

Maybe Kelly got wind of last Sunday’s article and decided that he would show me how wrong I could be.

Even as recently as one of our articles yesterday, I was still sure Moore would start that I wrote:

[The game would be] an opportunity for Chip Kelly to get Dante Moore back to his early season form.

Only I wasn’t right.

Chip Kelly, who has become known for his stubbornness and inflexibility when it comes to the UCLA offense, was suddenly flexible and suddenly, and without warning, benching the true freshman in favor of Ethan Garbers.

How, exactly, was that even possible?

It was one of the most un-Chip Kelly move UCLA fans have ever seen from Chip Kelly.

And, it was a move Kelly deserves praise for, but then Kelly downplayed the move in his postgame press conference.

Dante was banged up a little bit at the beginning of the week. So, Garbs got a predominant amount of snaps early in the week and then just over the course of the week as we looked at it…you get to the end of the week like we always do think you know where are we what's our depth who can contribute and so you know Ethan earned the start this week from a practice standpoint in terms of where we are, but I thought Dante came in did a really nice job. Dante was really good towards the end of the week too himself. So, we’re pretty confident in what we have in quarterback right now.

But, then, Ben Bolch of the LA Times asked, “Obviously, he was struggling how much did that go into it?” To which, Kelly responded:

It didn’t.

So, while it seemed to most that the quarterback change was a response to Moore’s struggles, Kelly insisted in his post-game press conference that it had nothing to do with it.

Here’s the video of Kelly’s complete post-game press conference, courtesy of UCLA Athletics on YouTube:

Is that something that Kelly said for the purpose of keeping Colorado coach Deon Sanders guessing as to who to start next week? Or, does Kelly really mean what he’s saying there?

It’s impossible to tell, but it seems like everyone should take Kelly at his word, which means that three interceptions which lead to 17 points is not enough to get a guy benched under Chip Kelly. And, that’s just sad.

Then, Bruin fans wonder why UCLA can’t draw more than about 40,000 people to the Rose Bowl any more, next week’s game notwithstanding because the draw for it is the head coach on the opposing sideline. And, anyone who says otherwise is either lying or doesn’t know what they’re talking about.


Go Bruins!

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