Spaulding Report: Chip Kelly Names Ethan Garbers as UCLA's Starting QB for Week 1

While Garbers gets the start, both transfer Collin Schlee and freshman Dante Moore will get playing time.

Joe Piechowski

Aug 29, 2023

Ethan Garbers has been named as UCLA’s starting quarterback for the season opener this Saturday against Coastal Carolina. (Photo Credit: Don Liebig/uclabruins.com)

UCLA head coach met with the media this morning and, almost immediately, he announced that Ethan Garbers will start this Saturday against Coastal Carolina. Already this afternoon, I’ve seen posts and comments on social media trashing the decision. But those hot takes don’t really seem to have a clue as to what has actually transpired during camp.

The video of Chip Kelly’s interview is courtesy of UCLA Athletics on YouTube.

When Kelly made the announcement, he explained the reason as to why Garbers is getting the start over transfer Collin Schlee and freshman Dante Moore and it has nothing to do with Garbers necessarily winning the starting job. Kelly was quick to point out that all three players have earned playing time for Saturday’s game. Kelly said:

All three of them deserve to play. They've all played outstanding. It's been a really good battle with those guys and a healthy competition, and they all have their own playing time. But Ethan will take the first snap. Ethan has the most experience in our offense. So, Ethan will start the game but you'll see Colin and you'll also see Dante.

Kelly did not indicate how the coaching staff will divide the playing time, saying that they’ll figure that out by the end of the week.

When asked what Ethan had done to set himself apart from the other guys, Kelly declined to say what, if anything, Garbers had done to earn the start. “All three of those guys are together but someone has to take the first snap,” Kelly said. “So, Ethan's been here the longest in our system. So, that's why Ethan’s starting.”

So, there isn’t anything in particular that has put Garbers ahead in the quarterback competition. Instead, it sounds like it’s familiarity with the system and the need to have one of them take the first snap which has resulted in today’s announcement.

Now, even if Kelly isn’t being completely forthcoming with the media, playing all three quarterbacks in the season opener is clearly the right decision. Garbers does, in fact, have more time in UCLA’s offensive system, having played in 18 games over the last two seasons. So, it would make sense that he understands the system the best at this point in time.

Even if Moore or Schlee do eventually pass Garbers to earn the starting job, not starting those guys takes a lot of pressure off of each of them since they “aren’t starting.” At the same time, giving each of them significant playing time this weekend makes perfectly good sense from a developmental perspective. Ideally, by the time each of them gets on the field, the game should be in hand, reducing again the amount of pressure being placed on each player.

It also gives the coaching staff a chance to evaluate each quarterback in real game situations. Unlike the NFL which uses preseason games to gauge where players may be developmentally, college football doesn’t play preseason games. The closest thing to a preseason game you have in college is non-conference play.

Over the years, I have lamented how I didn’t like the fact that the UCLA coaching staff doesn’t use non-conference games as an opportunity to get guys feet wet for playing at the college level, especially at quarterback.

It’s nice to see that the plan is to start the most experienced guy while also giving two other guys an opportunity to play in their first game at the Rose Bowl. Regardless of whether Garbers remains the starter all season or is ultimately benched in favor of either Schlee or Moore, each of these guys will be more ready to enter a game late in the season if the starting QB, whomever that is, goes down with an injury. That’s why entering Week 1 with a plan to play three quarterbacks against, what should be, a tough non-conference opponent makes perfect sense.

Of course, after Coach Kelly made the announcement, all three Bruin quarterbacks spoke to the media. Ethan Garbers was up first. He was followed by Collin Schlee while Dante Moore wrapped up the media session.

The video of the three quarterbacks is also courtesy of UCLA Athletics on YouTube.

Each quarterback spoke about the quarterback competition. For what it’s worth, each of the quarterbacks sounded very level-headed. In fact, one of the first things that Garbers said was, “It’s time to get to work and win some football games this year.”

Both Garbers and Moore spoke about the VR system that UCLA is using to help the quarterbacks learn even more. “It helps a good amount,” Garbers said. “We got like 20 or 30 reps from practice that is just like taking a game rep. You're seeing it from the eyes of the quarterback and you're looking at all the tells and everything…it's a really good tool.”

Meanwhile, Moore had this to say about the VR system:

It's like a true blessing to have. I know, while we're at home or not actually on the football field, just being out there actually putting yourself in the reality of being on the football field and seeing how these looks were at practice and if I thought I saw this at practice, and then having a chance to go back and say, ‘Okay, I was wrong on that read.’ So, I just get to learn from it. It's been a lot, for sure, but I just know that, with that, it's just a true blessing to have. I know that we're all learning from it.

The idea of a three-man platoon at quarterback didn’t seem to phase transfer Collin Schlee. Schlee mentioned that he played in a two-quarterback system at Kent State and, so it wasn’t something he isn’t used to. Schlee said:

I love being a part of something like this…something special. Not every organization has this many guys that could play for their team. So, I think that's really special. But I played in a two-quarterback [system] at Kent [State]. So, I'm used to this.

Overall, it’s good to see that all three guys are looking forward to getting out on the field Saturday for the first game of the 2023 season.

Go Bruins!!!

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