UCLA extends head coach Chip Kelly through 2027
Just 14 months ago, it was a question of will or won’t UCLA extend Chip Kelly’s original contract.
Now, in back-to-back offseasons, Kelly has re-upped with the Bruins.
UCLA announced Friday a two-year extension for Kelly that will take him through the 2027 season. Last January’s extension was through the 2025 campaign, so now the football program has its leader locked up well into the start of the Bruins’ move to the Big Ten Conference, which begins August 2024.
Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
“I am excited about our football program under the leadership of Coach Kelly and his talented staff,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said in a statement. “The football program is on an upward trajectory, both on the field and in the classroom. Coach Kelly and his staff have done a tremendous job developing young men as demonstrated by their academic excellence.“
After a 10-21 start to his tenure over the first three seasons, Kelly has guided the Bruins to back-to-back winning seasons. UCLA followed up an 8-4 season in 2021 with a 9-4 mark last season.
The nine victories were one shy of tying the program’s single-season record and earned UCLA a No. 21 national ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. It was the program’s first appearance in the final AP poll since 2014.
Last season’s team was the first in school history to average more than 500 yards of total offense, finishing fourth in the nation at 503.6 yards per game. UCLA’s rushing attack, led by Zach Charbonnet, produced 237.2 yards to lead the Pac-12 Conference and rank sixth nationally.
The Bruins have earned bowl game selections each of the past two years, sitting out the 2021 Holiday Bowl due to a COVID-19 outbreak and losing to Pittsburgh in last season’s Sun Bowl.
The recent success has been helped by Kelly and his staff’s navigation of the transfer portal and they made their biggest splash on the recruiting trail by signing five-star quarterback and early enrollee Dante Moore to the 2023 class in December.
Moore will compete for the starting job left behind by Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who graduated with the program’s all-time passing record under Kelly’s tutelage.
Defense is where UCLA has struggled, however, finishing 86th in the country after allowing 403.3 yards per game. The pass defense, in particular, struggled and was ahead of only California in the Pac-12 after allowing 273 yards per game to rank 116th of 130 FBS programs nationally.
Kelly reshuffled his staff on defense for a second consecutive offseason and will have his third different defensive coordinator in as many seasons. D’Anton Lynn left his safeties coaching position with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens to take over for Bill McGovern, who was re-assigned as the program’s director of football administration.
UCLA will open the 2023 campaign Sept. 2 against Coastal Carolina at the Rose Bowl.