Keep chopping.
That is the phrase coach Chip Kelly has been using to keep UCLA football (3-8, 3-5 Pac-12) motivated this season – and it paid off Saturday with a win over archrival USC.
“We’ve used that all year long – just don’t worry about things you don’t control,” Kelly said, following Monday’s practice. “We’ve just got to keep chopping; it’s an analogy we give those guys of ‘What’s the next play and what’s the next snap.’ You can’t live in the past and you can’t also be anxious about the future.”
The Bruins, who led the Trojans 14-3 early in the opening quarter this past weekend, proved they had adopted Kelly’s mindset after recovering from a handful of miscues, such as big passing plays and a blocked punt that let the early lead slip away.
While UCLA was already eliminated from postseason eligibility, USC was still playing for its postseason life. Rather than giving in, the Bruins continued to battle until they claimed arguably their best victory of the season by scoring the game’s final 13 points.
Redshirt junior running back Joshua Kelley – who was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after rushing for 289 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns in the win – said the team’s performance and the grit it showed validated the work it has been putting in since August.
“We work hard,” Kelley said. “We’re going to grind every single day, compete, train well and when we saw that, once we were in the victory formation once we won that game, I was just like this is why we play football, this is why we train hard for moments like that.”
Junior linebacker Krys Barnes sealed the win with a moment of his own after breaking up quarterback JT Daniels’ fourth-down pass on the Trojans’ final play of the game. Barnes said Saturday’s win displayed the resilience of the team.
“It’s good to see your hard work pay off, especially during the week with how we practice,” Barnes said. “Even still this late into the season, … no matter what our record is, no matter what it is, we’re sticking together.”
In its season finale this week, UCLA will face Stanford (6-4, 4-3 Pac-12), a program the Bruins have not beaten since 2008.
Despite snapping a three-game losing skid to the Trojans on Saturday, Kelly said the team does not think about such trends during its game preparation – positive or negative.
“We don’t talk about history,” Kelly said. “We’re a forward-thinking operation, so what happened in the past doesn’t mean anything to us. We’re looking through the windshield, not through the rearview mirror, so I don’t care if they won 47 in a row.”
No matter what happens in UCLA’s final game, it will finish with four or fewer wins for the second time in three seasons. This time, however, players and coaches appear to be optimistic about the future and what is being built in Westwood.