{"id":42729,"date":"2021-12-23T16:55:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T21:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=42729"},"modified":"2021-12-23T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T21:55:40","slug":"42729-uclas-bowl-prep-is-to-stand-pat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2021\/12\/23\/42729-uclas-bowl-prep-is-to-stand-pat\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA\u2019s Bowl Prep Is To Stand Pat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not much has come easy for UCLA during the Chip Kelly<\/strong> era. Even in their first winning season in Kelly\u2019s four years, the bowl season is being turned on its side with the new Omicron variant of the Covid virus. UCLA\u2019s bowl prep is to stand pat and do what they have been doing for the past two years. Kelly likes to call it protecting the eco system.<\/p>\n

Covid Reappears in College Football<\/h3>\n

Wednesday, Texas A&M had to bow out of next week\u2019s Gator Bowl. Even though it was nine days away, there was no chance they would have enough scholarship players completing the 10-day quarantine. The Miami Hurricanes have shut down their bowl prep. And in Westwood, both the UCLA men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball teams suspended their season due to Covid outbreaks. Tuesday night, the university announced it was closing down the campus during Winter break. It is also going to remote classes for a minimum of a couple of weeks when the Winter quarter starts in January.<\/p>\n

So is Kelly worried about the Bruins and potential exposure to the virus that would endanger their participation in Tuesday\u2019s Holiday Bowl? \u201cWe have taken all of the precautions we took a year ago, you know when we were faced with this challenge,\u201d Kelly said Wednesday. He added that there had been no discussion about going to San Diego earlier than Friday\u2019s departure date, in order to get into a different protective bubble.<\/p>\n

Been Here Before<\/h3>\n

Since the Covid altered-season of 2020, Kelly has reinforced a message to his players about what they do on their own time when they are not with the team. \u201cThey understand the ramifications if for some reason you did test positive, you are out for 10 days when we are inside of 10 days from the game. I think everybody\u2019s got to be really heightened.\u201d He said the staff has highlighted what has happened in recent days with the NHL, the NBA, and even other UCLA teams on campus when there is an exposure. Kelly said the medical staff is in charge of the protocols process. \u201cMy take is that we\u2019ve always let the medical team make the decision in terms of where we are, and they’ve got a really good grasp of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA will be requiring booster shots for all students to return to campus for the Winter quarter. That will be relevant to football players who will not be leaving early for the draft or leaving via the transfer portal. Players who opt for the NFL rarely return to school in the Winter as they sign on with agents and training teams to get them ready for pro workouts.<\/p>\n

Wednesday Is Monday<\/h3>\n

The practice location is not the only thing staying static. Kelly said the schedule stays the same for the workouts. Well, sort of. We won\u2019t go through how Wednesday is Monday in Kelly\u2019s world and Friday is Wednesday\u2026or maybe Tuesday. We\u2019re not sure we can keep up with it. The point is Kelly is treating this week of workouts like any other game week prep. \u201cThis is really a rinse and repeat from last week,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cToday is Monday in our world.\u201d In other words, it was the first day of practice of the week. So, UCLA was doing on Wednesday what they would generally do on a Monday during the season. Friday\u2019s practice will cover what they would generally do on a Wednesday. That means the Thursday walk-through will be Saturday, Christmas morning. Yeah, we also need a chart to follow along.<\/p>\n

Another thing that is staying the same, for the most part, is the lineup. At least as best we can tell. Defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia<\/strong> will not play. He has opted for the NFL draft and needs time to recover from some minor injuries.<\/p>\n

We looked over the two-deep chart to see if there were any changes. Kelly told us we were wasting our time. \u201cI have not looked at any two-deep,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cMaybe I think they just put names down because you\u2019ve got to put names in. Two-deep, besides the quarterback, really doesn\u2019t mean anything because really anybody in the two deep plays for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going Home<\/h3>\n

Sixth year linebacker Jordan Genmark Heath<\/a> is going home for the post-season. He played his high school ball in San Diego. With the Bruins bowl opportunities<\/a> at the end of the season boiling down to Las Vegas or San Diego, he said he was excited with the bowl decision. \u201cI\u2019m not that good at gambling so it is good for me that we go to San Diego,\u201d he joked Thursday.<\/p>\n

He said he has to had to engage in some negotiating with teammates to get their potentially unused tickets for all the family and friends he has in San Diego who want to come to the game. He expects 40 people from his inner circle to be in attendance.<\/p>\n

Having significant post-season experience from his years at Notre Dame, he is also aware that most of the current roster has never been to a bowl game. \u201cAs far as being in this position, me, Ale [Aho], and some of the other guys that are a little older, we have been in situations like this and it is just another game for us,\u201d he said. There is also the point of this being one of the most experienced teams in the country. \u201cWe have such a mature team. We\u2019re all older and disciplined and know what\u2019s at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sink Or Swim<\/h3>\n

There is a little bit of fun built into bowl week. The team will be visiting Sea World. Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson<\/strong> had talked about swimming with the dolphins. Genmark Heath says there will be such adventure for him in his hometown. \u201cAnimals like that, I would never go into their habitat. But if Dorian wants to do it, as you know, Dorian likes to do different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the game being in his adopted hometown, [he is originally from Stockholm, Sweden], he said in order to comply with Covid restrictions, he can\u2019t really show the players around San Diego. \u201cBut we might have to go to my crib, and have mom cook some food up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A full preview of the bowl game will be part of Last Word\u2019s<\/strong> daily bowl coverage. Holiday Bowl coverage will be coming on Sunday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not much has come easy for UCLA during the Chip Kelly era. Even in their first winning season in Kelly\u2019s four years, the bowl season is being turned on its side with the new Omicron variant of the Covid virus. UCLA\u2019s bowl prep is to stand pat and do what they have been doing for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":39409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7361,4],"tags":[2539,1184,7797,7716,208],"class_list":["post-42729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bowl-games","category-pac12","tag-chip-kelly","tag-holiday-bowl","tag-jordan-genmark-heath","tag-otito-ogbonnia","tag-ucla-bruins"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}