Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 28, 2023; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Chip Kelly reacts after the game against the Colorado Buffaloes at the Rose Bowl. UCLA defeated Colorado 28-16.
At one point in his career, Chip Kelly was considered one of the top coaches in all of college football after he helped build the Oregon Ducks into a perennial powerhouse.
Since that point, however, Kelly’s coaching career has come off the rails a bit, including a difficult stint as the head coach of the UCLA Bruins from 2018-2023 that saw him post a record of 35-34 before leaving to become the offensive coordinator of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
According to former UCLA player Quentin Lake, who is now a captain for the Los Angeles Rams, Kelly intentionally sabotaged the Bruins’ on-field success in order to secure a unique incentive in his contract.
This Chip Kelly story is CRAZY 😭 pic.twitter.com/eDuqnqS7uz
— Bent Outta Shape (@BentOuttaShape_) August 6, 2026
Chip Kelly Sabotaged UCLA With Worse Players To Boost GPA
Lake appeared on the “Bent Outta Shape” podcast, hosted by former Bruins players Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr, to discuss his time at UCLA and under Kelly.
According to Lake, Kelly was more focused on hitting contract incentives surrounding his players’ GPAs than he was about winning football games.
“He would get, I think, a certain amount of money for every kid that got above a 3.0 GPA,” Lake said. “So he brought in all these walk-ons, and I’m just like ‘Yo, where’s the LA talent?’ because when he was at Oregon you had like De’Anthony Thomas.”
If that’s true, it would explain both Kelly’s on-field struggles and why new head coach Bob Chesney, who took over after a disastrous two-season run under DeShaun Foster, is recruiting so much more strongly than Kelly had.
On one hand, Kelly was simply doing what the school asked of him by bringing in good students. But it’s easy to see why that would frustrate players like Lake, who just wanted to win football games.