A rumor involving Chip Kelly went rampant Thursday afternoon. Luckily, UCLA’s athletic director has cleared the air.
Football Scoop reported Thursday afternoon the Bruins aren’t guaranteed to bring Kelly back after this season.
“UCLA has shown improvement in Chip Kelly’s third season in Westwood; however, Kelly is not guaranteed to return in 2021 even with a win over Stanford on Saturday,” the site wrote today.
The rumor turned heads for a number of reasons. First, UCLA has looked the best its been under Kelly this season. Second, there’s plenty of reason to believe the Bruins have a legitimate shot to win the Pac-12 South next year. Firing Kelly now would be a step in the wrong direction for UCLA. The post went so far as to site Urban Meyer as a potential reach by the program, which seems unbelievably unlikely.
Luckily, it doesn’t appear the Bruins are considering moving on from Kelly. UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond denied Football Scoop’s report Thursday afternoon. Take a look.
Not true. Very disappointing @FootballScoop , how about you call me next time. Go Bruins! 💙🐻💛 https://t.co/HBqqyKhKNr
— Martin Jarmond (@MartinJarmond) December 17, 2020
Jarmond even went as far to reach out to college football insider Bruce Feldman to deny Football Scoop’s report for a second time.
#UCLA AD Martin Jarmond: "There is absolutely ZERO truth to that report. Chip (Kelly) is my guy. I’m disappointed that FootballScoop would put that out there (that Kelly might not be back in 2021). Me and Chip are tight. We’re rolling forward and I’m looking forward to Saturday."
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 17, 2020
Well there’s that.
UCLA shouldn’t move on from Chip Kelly just yet, especially considering the Bruins are just starting to get going.
UCLA is 3-3 this season with losses to Colorado, Oregon and USC. USC and Colorado are 1-2 in the Pac-12 South while Oregon is going to represent the North in the Pac-12 Championship Game this Friday. All three of the Bruins’ losses were by a combined 14 points.
Kelly has UCLA starting to look like a true Pac-12 contender. Parting ways with him would be a disastrous step for the program.