Ohio State Expected to Hire Chip Kelly As Next OC.
The search for Bill O’Brien’s replacement appears to have ended. According to The Athletic’s college football insider Bruce Feldman, Chip Kelly is poised to be appointed the Buckeyes’ next offensive coordinator, succeeding O’Brien after only three weeks on the job. The announcement comes only hours after it was revealed that O’Brien would be leaving the Buckeyes to become the head coach of the Boston College Eagles on Friday morning.
“UCLA’s Chip Kelly is expected to become the new OC at Ohio State, per source,” Feldman stated in an interview with X. “Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day played for Kelly at UNH and later coached with him at three stops.”
Kelly, like O’Brien, is expected to take over playcalling duties from Day, who will relinquish that duty for the first time in his head coaching career. Kelly and Day go long back, with Day serving as Kelly’s quarterback at New Hampshire from 1998 to 2001.
Both were on the New Hampshire staff in 2002, with Day as tight ends coach and Kelly as offensive coordinator. In 2015, the two were again coaching together, this time with Day serving as the Eagles’ quarterback coach under Kelly. One year later, Kelly took over as head coach of the 49ers, with Day returning as quarterback coach.
On paper, their partnership seemed to make perfect sense. Kelly is a proven offensive maestro who will have access to the world’s best talent in Columbus, possibly the most talent he has had at the collegiate level since his tenure at Oregon.
However, the one stumbling block is that Kelly would ostensibly be taking a step back to become the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator after serving as head coach at UCLA. However, Kelly seemed to be unconcerned by this, as he is currently apparently on his way to Columbus.
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