Can’t Wait For Saturday | Kelly takes a wise but strange decision.
Greetings from “Can’t Wait For Saturday,” your morning college football fix from longtime Illini beat writer, AP Top 25 voter, and Heisman state representative Bob Asmussen. Every day, he’ll share his thoughts on the game he enjoys.
It’s time for a two-part series on the changes at UCLA. Today, we’ll look at why Chip Kelly left a head coaching position to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. That’s known as a step back. On Monday, I’ll make suggestions for what the Bruins should do next.
Kelly’s coaching background is undoubtedly unusual. Kelly began his coaching career on the defensive side of the ball at Columbia before being known as an offensive expert at New Hampshire.
I had to search up the FCS school’s nickname (The Wildcats).
Kelly’s effort was excellent enough to earn him a position as Mike Bellotti’s offensive coordinator at Oregon in 2007.
When Bellotti became Oregon’s athletic director two years later, Kelly was the obvious candidate to succeed him.
Kelly was also astonishingly successful. In four seasons, his teams went 46-7, won one national championship, and were placed in The Associated Press top five three times. The Ducks appeared in a BCS bowl game each of his four seasons.
He could have stayed there and won indefinitely. But the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles called following the 2012 season, and he felt compelled to leave.
In three seasons with the Eagles, he went 26-21 with one playoff trip before being fired.
The 49ers hired him, and he lasted one season (2-14) before being sacked again.
Kelly returned to college coaching in 2018 with UCLA. He did not have the same level of success as he did at Oregon, finishing 35-34 over six seasons. He won only 10 games in his first three years with the Bruins, but had greater success in the latter three.
Still, there is an impression that he jumped before being pushed.
After finishing 8-5 in ’23, UCLA appeared to be on the right track. With a ’24 schedule that includes LSU, Oregon, Penn State, Iowa, Washington, and Southern California, a winning season wasn’t going to be easy for the 60-year-old Kelly.
So he is now in Columbus, calling plays for his pal Ryan Day. If the Buckeyes do well as projected (I have them ranked second in the preseason), Kelly will have the opportunity to run another program. With a new clock. What a profession.
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