Rising UCLA with Chip Kelly was an exercise in patience

Watching Chip Kelly’s workouts are a window into the things that made him such a transformed college football coach: a breathless rhythm, demanding attention to detail, some unnerving oddity, blunt intensity, joy in the craft.

“This is our happy place,” Kelly said afterwards in University of California Practice area, an oasis of artificial turf tucked away on the Westwood campus between the legendary Pauley Pavilion, a hotel and a parking garage. Kelly smiles and fidgets, occasionally putting his hands in his armpits as he speaks, ready to answer questions but ultimately much more interested in preparing for the biggest game of his tenure at UCLA on Saturday against Oregon. He is not a man who tends to stand still.

This was reflected in Monday’s practice – or training, as Kelly prefers to call it, in keeping with military jargon. Between 9 and 10:26 a.m., there were probably two minutes in which the Bruins could relax and exhale. Kelly used those two minutes to embrace his former 2019 team gambler, Wade Less, who was visiting from Australia with his wife and daughter. “We need to tighten security here,” Kelly cracked in Les’ salute, a flash of ironic humor to the New England coach.



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