UCLA Football: Chip Kelly Offense with Justin Frye (Origins, History, and Film Study) 

Thanks! Are you referring especially to heavier personnel packages and the increased use of TE's? It's definitely true that UCLA doesn't use alignment to spread the field as much as Chip's Oregon teams did, but at the same time the underlying theory of the offense is still more spread than, say, Sarkisian's Alabama offense, which also made heavy use of versatile TE's. For example, unlike Alabama, UCLA rarely runs 7-8 man protections even when they've got the personnel on the field to do it, so even in those heavier sets they're still spreading the field and creating lots of zone stretches in the passing game, they're just compressing everything pre-snap in order to (1) open up quick crossing routes, and (2) take advantage of traffic and the increased space that compressed alignments create to the outside. In the run game, there's still a QB keep option (or at least the fake of one) on most plays, and there's still a solid RPO presence, although they could certainly do more to activate the pass options on these plays (maybe a QB issue?). It's just a different way of playing with where space is and where it isn't, with heavier formations being good at creating traffic that can then spring people open in the space to the outside. Overall, I would expect the offense to look more like the old Oregon stuff moving forward, though what exactly that looks like has always depended on the specific QB for Kelly. In 2019 the spread run game was dysfunctional, in that the Bruins were often reading backside edge players, but the threat of the QB run wasn't holding those guys and the OL wasn't getting enough horizontal displacement, so backside pursuit was a huge problem. Compressing the formation with more TE's might've been an effort to create more gaps and get any unblocked edge defenders farther from the cutback. Things got better in 2020, and it's probably not a coincidence that that happened when DTR got his rushing average up, so I definitely think that the offense will get more successful as all of those option/RPO components really get clicking.

Thanks!

Those were some weird circumstances. I'll have some thoughts on the spring game somewhere, but probably not on this channel. Maybe on the berk18 channel or W4C, though.

I'm writing the script for that one right now. Should be out in a week!

It's gonna happen sooner or later, just looking for the right spot.