Chip Kelly is not a head coach that comes across as overly superstitious. He is, however, a “little stitious” when it comes to talking about the health of his UCLA program.

The Bruins are preparing to face No. 11 Utah in the Pac-12 opener with Kyle Whittingham’s roster juggling injuries to begin the season. Kelly was asked about a comparison between the injuries for the Utes and UCLA’s apparent health for the matchup.

“On Wednesday, on Wednesday,” Kelly clarified about the current health of the Bruins.

As the reporter responded with a “knock on wood,” Kelly went on to provide an example of UCLA scrambling late in a game week after a key injury.

“I’m just saying. You guys talk about, and I know we joke about it and you guys get a big kick out of it. We practice all week long and on Friday morning Alec Anderson said he couldn’t play,” said Kelly. “And we spent the entire week with Alec Anderson playing so we had to shuffle our entire offensive line lineup going into the game 2 years ago.”

As for staying healthy, Kelly said every team eventually puts its depth to the test, there’s just no way of knowing when that test will come during a season.

“It can happen at any time. To maybe stay away from that and the football gods of saying ‘Hey, we’re healthy, we’re good to go’ and then all of a sudden 3 kids get hurt in today’s training session,” said Kelly. “It’s just the nature of the sport we play. I think at all times during the course of a season, your depth is going to be tested. Some times it’s early, sometimes it’s late. I don’t think anybody has a crystal ball on that.”