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UCLA got its first win of the season, but not all is well in Westwood.

Head coach Chip Kelly announced this week that three players are out for the rest of the season due to concussions and the Bruins are still just 1-5 at the halfway points of the season.

However, UCLA, when it comes to Saturday’s game against Arizona, the Bruins seemingly caught a break with Khalil Tate’s ankle injury. The star quarterback is out, and UCLA will instead face Rhett Rodriguez, who will make his first career start.

As always, I welcome your questions for this weekly feature. You can send me questions on Twitter @thucnhi21 or via email at thnguyen@scng.com. Let’s get to the A’s to your Q’s.

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Halfway through the year last year, UCLA had seven announced season-ending injuries. There were knee injuries (Audie Omotosho, Nate Sarks, Alex Akingbulu), concussions (Breland Brandt), shoulders (Keyon Riley), a hip (Kenny Lacy) and a foot (Caleb Wilson).

Halfway through this season, the number is the same: seven season-ending injuries. Two knee injuries (Josh Woods, Kenny Chuchwell), three confirmed concussions (Bolu Olorunfunmi, Jaelan Phillips and Soso Jamabo) and two disclosed (Mique Juarez and Je’Vari Anderson). The two undisclosed injuries I would venture to say are concussions as well.

So it’s unfortunate for UCLA to have this many season-ending injuries during the year, but it’s certainly not unheard of. The exact same number occurred last year by this time. But when combined with several medical retirements due to concussions, the amount of concussions, and the frequency with which they were announced (three this week), certainly puts up an interesting flag.

The number of diagnosed concussions has gone up recently, at least in the NFL, but that’s doesn’t necessarily mean there are “more” concussions overall. It could mean that players and/or trainers are more privy to them and recognize/report/diagnose them more often, which then gets the incident recorded. It’s interesting that players have been ruled out for the season so early in the year when concussions typically have a lot of fluctuation in terms of recovery time, but there’s a new coaching and training staff. They are locked in on every movement of every player through GPS on the practice field. I would assume that they are just as diligent when it comes to head injuries.

I think I’ve heard some theories that Kelly is using concussions as a way to cover up possible transfers of players who are unhappy with the new staff or as a reason to explain away why players from the previous staff not playing. I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories, but this one seems pretty far-fetched for me. I saw Mique Juarez walk into the trainers’ shed, sit down on the table and speak to a trainer. I did not see him again for month. He definitely wasn’t talking to the trainer about transferring. We also know that he had a concussion in spring practice as a freshman and he missed time with an undisclosed injury during this past year’s spring practice. We know what the effects of accumulated concussions are. Bolu Olorunfunmi missed a few days of training camp then reappeared wearing a special VICIS helmet, which is designed to reduce impact forces. It’s often used for concussion-related situations. He wasn’t just choosing to wear that helmet because he was planning to transfer, especially because he played in six games and doesn’t qualify for a redshirt. The training staff wasn’t making him wear it because he came from the previous coaching staff.

Coaching staffs are typically extremely cautious about discussing concussions any more than they absolutely have to. They’re more cautious when talking about head injuries than other ones. No one likes talking about concussions in football, which is a different discussion for a different time, but Kelly wouldn’t bring it up if he didn’t absolutely have to.

Email question: “Purely speculative, with Soso Jamabo out for the season, and a young and growing stable of Chip Kelly recruited running backs on the team, what is the likelihood he becomes a grad transfer?”

Soso Jamabo, assuming that he is on track to complete his degree this year, would be eligible to transfer as a graduate student. I personally would be surprised to see him back. Chip Kelly has a group of running backs he likes in Joshua Kelley, Kazmeir Allen and Martell Irby and all three have eligibility to return next year. If Jamabo couldn’t break into the lineup this year, it was be a surprise if he did next year when Allen and Irby are no longer freshmen. If he did want to return, he might want to pursue a possible position change. As I’ve written in these Q&As many, many times, he has receiving skills that seem useful.

DM question: “Will Jaelan Phillips, Soso Jamabo, and Bolu Olorunfunmi be able to medical redshirt this year?”

From what I understand of the rule, players who appear in four games or fewer can use a redshirt. Jaelan Phillips appeared in four and Soso Jamabo appeared in just three, so both would be eligible for a redshirt opportunity. Bolu Olorunfunmi appeared in six games so he would not be eligible for a redshirt.

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There seems to a tightening of the rotation for receivers and running backs so there are a lot of players who have gotten lost in the shuffle in recent weeks. Dymond Lee started the season opener but doesn’t have a catch in the past three games. Chase Cota was expected to make an impact as well but also doesn’t have a catch in the past three games. Demetric Felton didn’t have anything in the first three games and now has seven catches in the past three. Martell Irby led the team in carries against Fresno State then took a backseat with Joshua Kelley’s emergence.

So the competition is high at all positions for all players. But, as Kelley said this summer of his mindset when he transferred into a crowded running backs group as a walk-on  and was unsure if he would ever get any carries: “Every time, I have this mindset that no matter where, I gotta make an impression. I made it, this is where I want to be, I got to, whenever I’m out there, make an impression.”

So I don’t know what to tell you about where Allen is in the rotation or why he hasn’t played more. It’s not my decision and I don’t see any of practice to know what goes into the decision. But Allen has averaged only 3.1 rushing yards per carry over the past three games and without his one 74-yard rush in the season opener, he’s averaged just 4 yards per carry in 27 rushes. That 74-yarder left a huge impression, because people keep asking about him, but I think that when it comes to the coaching staff, they need to see him reinforce that production in other situations when he’s not running behind an unbalanced offensive line that has an extra offensive lineman paving the way.

DM question: “Elijah Gates with more playing time, have you noticed the defense being more effective? And possible is he the best cover corner UCLA has?”

He’s gotten a good amount of run in all games this year, playing mostly in nickel packages and occasionally in base as well, but with a second-half injury to Nate Meadors last week, Gates got real extended time. Chip Kelly said after the game he was pleased with Gates: “(He’s) another young guy in the secondary who’s taken advantage of his playing time. We were short a little bit in the secondary and Elijah’s really stepped up for us to go along with Darnay (Holes) and Nate out there. He’s played a lot of snaps for us and I see him growing and getting better, and that’s the cool part about it.”

Whether the defense is “more effective” is hard for to me judge. I don’t have the exact snap counts and just one half against a turnover-prone, struggling Cal offense is too small of a sample size to know of Gates’ impact on the defense. I don’t think I’ve watched him closely enough to know if he’s the best cover corner on the team, but I do know that Darnay Holmes is pretty good himself. I think Gates has a bright career ahead of him at UCLA, but I found it interesting that both times Kelly was asked about Gates since Saturday’s game, the coach praised the redshirt freshman but didn’t answer without mentioning both Holmes and Meadors.

Kelly, when asked of Gates and fellow redshirt freshman Jay Shaw on Wednesday: “Obviously, we felt like we had two really good corners in Darnay and Nate and now that we can bring two other guys along is just going to help us in the long run.”

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Jim Mora pulled in several elite, five-star prospects while he was at UCLA. I’ll call him at ESPN to see how those worked out for him. UCLA started the year with five former five-star prospects on its roster, the second-highest number of any Pac-12 team. Three are out for the year and the team is 1-5.

So going after “elite” prospects doesn’t automatically mean wins are going to come. Certainly well-established powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State have both sides of the equation balanced in terms of five-star recruits and wins, but equations don’t balance themselves. The coach and his staff have to get the right pieces in place and then develop them. One of Mora’s downfalls was that he appeared to chase highly ranked players without regard for a system or a team identity. Thus he had a hodgepodge of talent that underachieved relative to what people expected.

Chip Kelly doesn’t care for stars. He cares for his system. Maybe time will tell whether his formula will work at UCLA, but there’s no way to know at this point in time how things will turn out.

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As a general rule, my gut doesn’t feel anything except for hunger. That is especially true in matters of recruiting because the whims of 17- or 18-year-old kids are not something I am particularly plugged into. Recruiting changes like the wind. Chip Kelly dismantled pretty much the entire recruiting class that was in place when he arrived and for a moment it looked like UCLA was only going to sign a handful of players. Then the coaching staff closed with a 27-man class that was ranked in the top 20. (Of course one of those signees, Bryan Addison, ended up at Oregon later.)

But even if the class doesn’t look impressive on signing day for whatever reason (i.e. there are no five-star prospects), you can’t really know for sure if it’s going to be a bust until at least two or three years from its signing day. Highly-ranked players get hurt, they transfer, they don’t pan out. Lower-ranked players turn into hidden gems. But we’re not fortune tellers, so we wait to see.

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By my count, UCLA has 74 scholarship players on its roster, which is well under the maximum 85. They started the year with 76, but lost Zach Sweeney to medical retirement and Devon Modster to a transfer.

I asked to speak to someone involved in recruiting for a story a few weeks ago but no one was made available.

Email question: “Other than maybe a big sigh, were there any noticeable impacts on players or coaches in practice this week after first win of the season?”

I didn’t notice a significant change in mood at practice this week, but that could be seen as a good thing for the Bruins. They got one win, but the season’s not going to just end at 1-5. Saturday was a big moment for the players to get the victory. They celebrated to their hearts’ content, but it’s not the only celebration they want to have this year, so when they returned to training on Monday is was back to business.

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I assume you’re speaking more specifically about which freshmen I think are on track to redshirt.

As a reminder, here is a rundown of the freshmen who have played and in how many games. Sixteen of UCLA’s 23 scholarship freshmen have played this season. Ten have already burned their redshirts by appearing in more than four games.

Kyle Philips, who has missed the past two game with an undisclosed injury, has appeared in just four games. If he returns this season, then he would burn his redshirt.

Three more could burn their redshirts if they play Saturday: Delon Hurt, Rayshad Williams and Bo Calvert. Hurt and Williams have mostly appeared in special teams. Calvert is getting regular playing time on defense. Unless something unforeseen occurs between now and Saturday, I would expect all three to play, which would put them in the non-redshirting category.

Elijah Wade has three games under his belt now. I anticipate that if he stays healthy, he’ll continue to play and burn his redshirt, especially considering the dwindling depth at outside linebacker with Jaelan Phillips being ruled out for the year and Marcus Moore being suspended indefinitely.

Elisha Guidry made his UCLA debut last week late in the fourth quarter. He could still play in three more games and retain his redshirt. By making his debut so late in the season and so late in the blowout, it would suggest that he’s still a prime candidate to redshirt, but there’s still some gray area there.

There are seven true freshmen who have not played yet: tight ends Matt Alaimo and David Priebe, offensive linemen Alec Anderson, Baraka Beckett and Jon Gaines, and defensive backs Kenny Churchwell and Patrick Jolly. We know Churchwell will redshirt due to injury. I would expect the others to redshirt as well.

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From the not-helpful Chip Kelly answers department, item dated Oct. 13, Berkeley:

Question: “Wilton didn’t get in at the end, is he still battling that back injury?”

Kelly: “No, we were just trying to finish it out and so I didn’t know if we were going to run the quarterback at all, so we just went with Lynch today.”

That didn’t clear much up for me personally, but that was Kelly’s official answer when asked after last week’s game about Speight. My unofficial translation could be that he means Speight is “healthy,” but because of his history with repeated back injuries and how easily those can flare up, Kelly wanted to be cautious in garbage time and didn’t want to risk injuring Speight again late in a blowout by running the quarterback. That’s just one possible theory of what he meant.

Email question: “Has Asiasi played?  I don’t see any stats for him on the website.”

Yes, he’s played in all games since he was eligible to return from suspension, so he is in line for his fourth straight game this weekend. He hasn’t had any catches, which is why he hasn’t shown up on the stat sheet, but he is regularly used in blocking situations. He had a key block on Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s 20-yard rush last weekend against Cal.

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According to this 2016 story from the Fresno Bee, UCLA paid Fresno State $650,000 for this year’s nonconference game.

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Yes, he’s been at practice every day this week dressed as a scout team player.

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UCLA football mailbag: What’s happening with all the concussions?