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

1. Finally get UCLA football to a bowl game

In what would almost surely guarantee him at least one more year at UCLA, Chip Kelly would need to lead the Bruins to a bowl game.

While winning over the locker room and landing a top 25 class would also help, this could be the trump card. Heck, if his Bruins won six-plus games and made a bowl in 2020, there’s a good chance that the rest of the checkpoints would take care of themselves. That would likely mean that he won over the locker room and recruits would love the progress and give him a shot.

As of right now, I don’t see a scenario in which Kelly wins less than six games and retains his job past the 2020 season. The Bruins didn’t pay all that money to win somewhere around 10-12 games in three years. He needs to win now.

Getting more from Dorian Thompson-Robinson would be a heck of a start and so would finding an adequate replacement for Joshua Kelley. He has a solid receiving corps return along with three starters on the offensive line, but the defense brings back just two starters — which may not be the worst thing considered it finished No. 113 in the country.

If Kelly wants to see 2021 as the head coach of the UCLA Bruins, he must make sure they get to the postseason, even if it’s by the slimmest of margins.