UCLA Football: 3 ways Chip Kelly can keep job past 2020 season

2. Landing a Top 25 recruiting class in 2021

The first Chip Kelly recruiting cycle with UCLA wasn’t too shabby. While many of his recruits were from the Jim L. Mora era, he reeled in a top 20 class and set himself up for immediate success.

Unfortunately, that top 20 class only led to a 3-9 season and he was punished with the No. 40 recruiting class nationally in 2019 which was sixth-best in the Pac-12. Not exactly the direction the head coach wanted to go after a strong recruiting start in 2018.

The Bruins then went 4-8 and he followed that up with the No. 32 recruiting class in 2020. These guys were solid but nowhere near where many believed Kelly would be in his third year at the helm. At this point, many fans expected Kelly to be bringing in top 10 classes instead of borderline top 35 groups.

If Kelly can make a bowl trip for the first time with the Bruins in 2020 despite having back-to-back underwhelming classes, that could cause an immediate uptick for the 2021 and 2022 cycles.

In order to retain his job past this 2020 season and get another shot in 2020, he needs to reel in a top 25 class and show that he’s capable of recruiting at a high level. He needs to keep pace with the Oregons, USCs, Washingtons and even Stanfords of the conference.