Did Chip Kelly Have It Right All Along?

For UCLA Bruins fans, the term “Chip Kelly” can certainly be triggering, conjuring up PTSD after six tumultuous seasons with more highs and lows than a weekend at Burning Man.

Kelly certainly had his deficiencies with recruiting, fan engagement, and media accessibility – certainly not to be rehashed here. But you have to wonder, in the case of recruiting, did he have it right all along?

Case in point – look what’s happening across the country.

Did Chip Kelly Have It Right All Along?

USC defensive tackle Bear Alexander is redshirting the rest of the 2024 season and ultimately transferring from the Trojans after USC offered him a significant NIL package – now a complete sunk cost.

UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka walked away from an undefeated team because he wanted to renegotiate his NIL terms midseason – another total loss from a time, investment, and opportunity cost perspective.

Or the plethora of players entering the transfer portal after playing four games; they dipped their toes with experience and now set themselves up for another destination where they can be featured.

The sport has become so transactional and our era of society is so obsessed with the immediacy of gratification that it begs the question, if one isn’t representing a top 8-10 blueblood program, does traditional recruiting in college football even make sense anymore?

Also Read: 3 Takeaways From UCLA Bruins Loss To Penn State

The likelihood of keeping a player at a non-blueblood program for three or four years consecutively seems as remote as getting away with counting cards in Blackjack in Las Vegas with both your thumbs intact.

For a school like UCLA, with a realistic ceiling of being a perennial top 20-25 football program, it seems logical that the vast majority of recruiting resources should go to transfers with 1-2 years of eligibility who have already been armed with football experiences and now have the self-awareness of assuredly knowing what they want from their final 12-24 months of eligibility.

We’re at the point in the sport’s history where if you’re not Alabama or Ohio State or Texas or the like, trying to recruit kids straight out of high school or from their redshirt freshman year at another school and expecting them to stay in one place until graduation or the NFL Draft, is professionally irresponsible at best and reckless gambling at worst.

Love it or hate it. Chip Kelly was right all along. We were just too naïve to accept it.

More must-reads:

• Three Takeaways From UCLA Bruins Encouraging Penn State Performance
• UCLA Bruins Need These 3 Players To Break Out Vs Penn State
• UCLA Bruins Defense Shows Heart In Loss To Oregon Despite Offensive Struggles