Kyle Philips leads UCLA’s nine All-Pac-12 football selections

The UCLA football program was well represented Tuesday with nine players listed as All-Pac-12 Conference selections.

The Bruins had the second-most players, behind conference champion Utah’s 10 selections. The teams are voted on by all 12 conference head coaches.

Kyle Philips was listed as a first-team receiver, after leading the conference with 10 receiving touchdowns and was second in receiving yards per game (67.2).

Philips was also honored as a second-team selection for his work as a punt returner. Utah’s Britain Covey was named ahead of Philips as the first-team return specialist. They were the only two players to each receive two special team player of the week honors throughout this season.

An honorable-mention receiver in 2020, Philips was the only Bruin named to the All-Pac-12 preseason first team in July.

“He’s a special young man,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly said Sunday of the redshirt junior. “He’s really been a No. 1 guy for us for a couple of years. … He has outstanding hands and really has been a dynamic punt returner.”

Philips, who starred at San Marcos High in the North County, will return home to San Diego when the Bruins compete in the Holiday Bowl against North Carolina State on Dec. 28 at Petco Park.

Redshirt junior tight end Greg Dulcich and junior offensive lineman Sean Rhyan were also named as first-team selections on offense. Dulcich, a former walk-on from St. Francis High, was fifth in the conference for receiving yards per game (60.4).

Rhyan and Paul Grattan anchored an offensive line that helped protect quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson and create holes for UCLA’s backfield duo of Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown. Grattan, a redshier senior, was named as an honorable mention.

Thompson-Robinson and Charbonnet were named as second-team selections for the Bruins. Brown was named as an honorable mention.

Charbonnet, a junior transfer from Michigan, rushed for 1,137 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first season at UCLA. He averaged 94.8 yards per game, finishing second behind Oregon State’s B.J. Baylor, who was named as the conference’s first-team running back along with Utah’s Tavion Thomas.

Thompson-Robinson had 2,409 passing yards and his 23 passing touchdowns were second in the conference. The senior also rushed for 610 yards and nine touchdowns.

The Bruins did not have a first-team defensive player but had three second-teamers.

Redshirt senior defensive back Qwuantrezz Knight had a team-high 66 tackles, including 8.5 tackles for a loss of 44 total yards. Knight had 2.5 sacks and forced a fumble this season. Defensive backfield teammate Quentin Lake tied for a team-high three interceptions. Edge rusher Mitchell Agude had 6.5 tackles for a loss and led the team with four forced fumbles this season. He also recorded two sacks, three pass breakups and recovered a fumble. Lake and Agude, both seniors, tied for third on the team with 54 tackles.

ON THE MEND

Brown has rushed for 615 yards and seven touchdowns in 10 games this season.

The redshirt senior has missed the past two games due to an undisclosed injury. Brown is expected to be back in time to compete in the Holiday Bowl. It would be the final game of his college career, after coming to Westwood as a grad transfer from Duke in 2020.

Kelly said Brown was “really close” to playing against USC and Cal but wanted to make sure he was fully healthy.

FILLING THE GAP

Kelly confirmed this week that Clancy Pendergast will serve as the defensive line coach for the bowl game.

Pendergast, a former USC defensive coordinator who joined the Bruins this summer as a defensive analyst, replaces Johnny Nansen, who became Arizona’s defensive coordinator on Dec. 1.