Chip Kelly keeps quiet on UCLA quarterback battle heading into Week 2
Chip Kelly had the vibe Wednesday of a man who didn’t want to talk much about his quarterbacks.
The UCLA head coach said he and his staff will sit down Friday and go through the rotation plan for each position, not just the quarterbacks. The Bruins used Ethan Garbers (who drew the start) and Dante Moore in their opener last Saturday against Coastal Carolina.
Kelly expects to add a third name to the participation report this week.
“Collin (Schlee) is gonna play, as long as Collin doesn’t get injured,” Kelly said.
So all three will play?
“Yeah,” Kelly answered quickly.
He did not name a starter.
When asked who would start, Kelly quipped that a local Bruin beat writer would start at quarterback. After a bit of back-and-forth banter, the topic changed.
UCLA’s opener provided fans a first look at 5-star freshman Dante Moore. The Detroit native threw for 143 yards and two touchdowns while completing seven of his 12 passes. Moore had one interception, though Garbers had two.
The Bruins had 11 drives in the game against Coastal. Garbers got five, which produced 210 yards of offense on 31 plays. Moore got six — the last of which was a five-play, 12-yard possession to burn the last 2:22 of game clock. Moore’s possessions produced 212 yards on 31 plays.
But the freshman looked the more explosive of the two, and the scoreboard backed that up. The Bruins scored 20 points with Moore running the show.
Garbers ended the day with a 19.3 QBR — the worst among the Pac-12’s qualified quarterbacks in Week 1. Moore had an 81.0 score.
“We want to win games,” Kelly said on Monday. “That’s everything we do, and our decisions are made on winning football games, so we’ll see how that expresses itself.”
The Bruins face San Diego State on the road on Saturday, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. PT on CBS.