Advertisement

The $10,000 question: Is Chip Kelly going .500 this season worth a five-figure bonus?

UCLA coach Chip Kelly leaves the field after his Bruins beat LSU 38-27 at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 4.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Share via

Is winning as many games as you lose in college football worthy of a $10,000 bonus?

That’s how much UCLA coach Chip Kelly stands to make if his team can notch win No. 6 after having failed in its previous two attempts. Kelly’s contract, which guarantees him $5.6 million this season, calls for him to make an extra $10,000 if the Bruins (5-4 overall, 3-3 Pac-12) win six games, an additional $10,000 if they win seven games and another $10,000 if they win eight.

Should the Bruins qualify for a bowl — a near-certainty if they win one more game — then Kelly would pocket another $40,000.

Kelly said Wednesday he wasn’t aware he would get the $10,000 bonus for winning six games, something he hasn’t done at UCLA, going 3-9 in 2018, 4-7 in 2019 and 3-4 in 2020.

Advertisement

Told it was in the contract he had signed, Kelly said he “wasn’t aware of that aspect ‘cause I didn’t look at that.”

UCLA football coach Chip Kelly has failed to prove he is capable of matching athletic director Martin Jarmond’s elite expectations for the Bruins.

What are his thoughts on getting a bonus for reaching six wins?

“I think that’s part of every college coach’s contract,” said Kelly, who is 15-25 overall with the Bruins.

Getting a bonus for six wins?

“Most of them, yeah, I would think,” Kelly said. “If you went through the history — there’s a guy for USA Today [Steve Berkowitz] that publishes them all the time so you can go through the history of what contracts are in college football and how those all work.”

Advertisement

Kelly can secure the $10,000 on Nov. 13 when the Bruins face Colorado (2-6, 1-4) at the Rose Bowl after back-to-back losses to Oregon and Utah.

Advertisement