UCLA loses to Cincinnati 26-17 in Chip Kelly’s college return

WEEEEEEEELP. Chip Kelly’s debut at UCLA didn’t quite go as most Bruins fans were hoping, to say the least. The Bruins opened at home against Cincinnati, and ended up losing 26-17. A sack in the fourth quarter that resulted in a safety gave the Bearcats a two-point lead with 9:45 left in the game. Inside the two-minute mark, Cincy lined up for a field goal, but UCLA was flagged for 12 men on the field. On the next play, the Bearcats scored a TD to make it 26-17.

UCLA got out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but that went away quickly as the Bearcats scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to go to halftime trailing 17-10. The Bruins scored a touchdown in the third to tie things up.

Michigan transfer QB Wilton Speight left the game with an injury, and true freshman Dorian Thompson-Robinson came in for him, finishing with 117 yards and no touchdowns.

The Bruins’ shaky start might seem surprising, but there’s a good reason for this. As Bill Connelly addressed in his UCLA season preview, there are a lot of pieces on offense that Kelly is missing this season that made last year’s unit successful:

In Kelly’s first season, he’ll have a pretty experienced defense. But his first offense is missing a lot of [former UCLA OC Jedd Fisch’s pieces: its starting QB (Rosen), its top two receivers (Jordan Lasley and Darren Andrews), and five linemen who had combined for 115 career starts. That includes three all-conference performers in tackle Kolton Miller (a top-15 draft pick), center Scott Quessenberry (a fifth-rounder), and guard Najee Toran.

As far as what’s next for UCLA, the schedule doesn’t exactly get much easier — Kelly’s team goes on the road to Oklahoma next week. (Reminder: The Sooners beat Lane Kiffin’s FAU team 64-14 this week!) There’s also road games to Colorado and Cal in between home games against Washington and Arizona, and then a home game against Utah.

Kelly will go back to the home of his former team Oregon in Autzen Stadium on Nov. 3 before finishing out the regular season against Arizona State, USC, and Stanford.

Sure, not all new head coach debuts are perfect, but it’s safe to say the expectations for Kelly’s return to college were a little higher than losing to Cincy at home.