Bruins officially welcome new coach Chip Kelly to UCLA

LOS ANGELES -- In front of approximately 200 people and flanked by cheerleaders and the UCLA mascot, Chip Kelly was introduced as the new Bruins head coach on Monday, ushering in the most anticipated era of football at the school in recent memory.

"Not a lot going on in L.A. today?" he asked those in the crowded room at Pauley Pavilion.

The off-the-cuff remark was greeted with laughter, but had it not been said in jest, it would have actually been a fair question. At UCLA, an introductory press conference for a football coach isn't usually the type of event that causes that many people to rearrange their day.

It felt more like something that would happen across town at USC.

The question now becomes: Will Kelly's arrival also lead to a power shift both in the city and in the Pac-12?

For Bruins athletic director Dan Guerrero, that's the aim. Kelly is the fourth football coach that he has hired at UCLA, and none of the first three -- Karl Dorrell (35-28), Rick Neuheisel (21-20) and Jim Mora (46-30) -- ultimately worked out. This time, the buzz is different.

"Certainly is the most significant [hire] in many respects," Guerrero said. "To land an individual of Chip Kelly's caliber is pretty special for UCLA, especially considering he was the most sought-after coach out there."

Kelly was the only coach the school spoke with about the job, Guerrero said.

In a year when there figured to be several high-profileoptions, Kelly could have had his pick. The most prevalent option among those was Florida, which heavily pursued the former Oregon coach until late last week, when it became clear Kelly had turned his attention back to the West Coast.

It was a hard pill to swallow for a Florida program that has won three national titles since 1996. UCLA, after all, plays in what is perceived to be the inferior Pac-12 and hasn't won a conference title since 1998.

For Kelly, it was all about fit -- and he credits that approach to being around Duke football coach David Cutcliffe in the spring.

"If you don't know him, he's a very wise, wise man," Kelly said. "There's a lot of intelligent people in the world, but there aren't a lot of wise people in the world.

"I owe Cut, because he talked to me all the time about his experience, and he had been somewhere before and got fired. He said his year off was the best experience he ever had and it's what you make of it; and he said just make sure when you come back that you find the right fit, and that was extremely important to me."

Kelly met with a UCLA contingent that included Guerrero, senior associate athletic director Josh Rebholz, chancellor Gene Block, donor Casey Wasserman and former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman in San Francisco on Monday. It was in that meeting that both sides discovered there was a similar vision -- not only from a football standpoint, but in how they wish to develop student-athletes.

The sides went back and forth through the week, and by Friday, Kelly agreed to replace Mora.

Aikman called Kelly the "greatest hire in UCLA history."

Kelly compiled a 46-7 record at Oregon from 2009 to 2012, and he benefitted from some of the best facilities in the country. That's one area where the Bruins have lagged behind, until recently. UCLA opened the $65 million Wasserman Football Center before this season began, giving the Bruins a facility that rivals any in the country.

"I think this is unique, this setup here. The fact that the Wasserman building has just been built, and it's a state-of-the-art facility to have your two practice fields right there in the middle of campus; Pauley Pavilion is to your left, and then the Luskin Conference Center and hotel is right at the other end of it," Kelly said. "I'd like to be able to just stay in the Luskin Center. I've heard it's expensive to live here, so if we could work out a deal where I could just stay in the Luskin Center, it would be great.

"So when you talk about a football setup, when you have a hotel, a practice field and an office all within like 200 yards, I think it's the best in the country."

Kelly's five-year contract is set to pay him $23.3 million and is partially offset by money he is still owed from coaching in the NFL.

Kelly did not provide any specifics about who will be joining him on his staff, nor did he state a specific timeline for when he hopes that will be settled.