Ohio State football coach Ryan Day made a significant move over the offseason when he decided to give up the play-calling duties to the Buckeyes’ offense.
It’s a decision that led to the surprising hiring of UCLA football coach Chip Kelly.
Kelly now takes over an Ohio State offense that, on top of having a new starting quarterback in Kansas State transfer Will Howard, is projected to be one of the top offenses in both the Big Ten and college football this season.
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Here’s what you need to know about who Ohio State’s new offensive coordinator is, including why Kelly decided to leave UCLA for the Buckeyes along with his full coaching career:
Who is Ohio State’s offensive coordinator?
Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach is Chip Kelly, the offensive-minded coach who turned heads within Power Five college football with his fast-paced, no-huddle offense at Oregon first as an offensive coordinator from 2007-08 before becoming the Ducks’ head coach in 2009.
Kelly’s success at Oregon — he boasted a 46-7 overall record, three Pac-12 Conference titles and an appearance in the BCS National Championship game in 2010 — earned him a head coaching job in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles. In Kelly’s first season in Philadelphia in 2013, the Eagles improved their win-loss record by eight wins from the year prior and won the NFC East. But the NFL caught up to Kelly and his style by the end of his third season, leading to his firing in Philadelphia in 2015 and then his eventual firing after one season with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.
For the last six seasons, Kelly served as the head coach at UCLA, where the Bruins spent time in the AP Poll over each of the last three years. With an 8-5 overall record this past season, Kelly became the fourth UCLA coach in program history to have a team finish with at least eight wins in three consecutive seasons.
He was hired as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator on Feb. 9.
Why did Chip Kelly leave UCLA for Ohio State?
Kelly’s departure from UCLA for Ohio State caused quite a shock within college football, considering Kelly was still employed by the Bruins and was serving as the program’s head coach.
However, with Bill O’Brien ending up taking the head coaching job at Boston College, the Buckeyes were in need of a new offensive coordinator.
So what can be pinpointed as the reason why Kelly wanted to leave sunny Los Angeles for Columbus and a coordinator position? That would be Kelly stepping in and coaching the Bruins’ quarterback group in UCLA’s bowl game — a part of coaching, i.e. coaching a position group, that Kelly hasn’t been involved with since he was an offensive coordinator at Oregon from 2007-08.
“I hadn’t actually coached a position since 2008,” Kelly said at his first news conference at Ohio State in March. “My wife remarked, ‘I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time.’ To me, the best part of football is football, and so you got to do football and not do some of the things that are involved with the head coaching deal.”
He added: “I just want to be happy, and I’m really happy coaching a position and really happy to be at this place.”
In a time of college athletics where head coaches come and go quicker than ever and NIL and the transfer portal overtaking recruiting, you can’t blame Kelly for wanting to perhaps take extra stress off his plate and just focus on the X’s and O’s in hopes of winning a national championship — even if his seat in Westwood was starting to warm up.
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Who did Chip Kelly replace as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator?
Kelly replaced Bill O’Brien as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.
O’Brien’s tenure with the Buckeyes was brief as he was hired away by Boston College on Feb. 9 to be the Eagles’ head coach after Jeff Hafley left for the NFL to be the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.
Has Chip Kelly worked with Ryan Day before? Relationship explained
Yes, and their relationship dates back quite a bit.
It started in 1998 when Day, a former college quarterback, began his collegiate career at the University of New Hampshire, where Kelly was serving as the Wildcats offensive line coach. Kelly, who recruited Day to New Hampshire, would then work with Day on a more day-to-day basis from 1999-2001 when Kelly was elevated to offensive coordinator. Day then joined Kelly’s offensive staff in 2002 as New Hampshire’s tight end coach.
Day was then hired as Kelly’s quarterbacks coach during his last season with the Eagles in 2015. He’d be brought onto Kelly’s staff in the same role with the 49ers the year after following Kelly’s firing from Philadelphia.
When asked on FOX’s college football analyst Joel Klatt’s podcast in July on how the hiring of Kelly came to be, Day said Kelly, like O’Brien, was on his A-list when the decision was made to hire an offensive coordinator but “timing wasn’t right” when he first reached out to Kelly.
Day would go on and say Kelly’s interest level and situation changed during their second call when Day reached back out to him after O’Brien departed for the ACC and Boston College.
“Thought we had a chance but the timing wasn’t right and we had to make a decision because of recruiting. And so it was great to have an opportunity to hire Bill but then he had turned around and had an opportunity to go to Boston College. … So I tried him (Kelly) again,” Day said. “I called him one more time. I said, ‘Yeah I got an opportunity to do this.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, I think so. I think I’m more interested. And then we talked a little bit longer. But it was not easy because there was a lot going on there.
“But that being said, he really wanted to get back to just coaching football and (it) kind of allows me to handle some of this other stuff.”
Chip Kelly Coaching Career
Here’s a full breakdown of Kelly’s stops throughout his coaching career, including at the college and NFL ranks:
Columbia (1990 – Freshman team): Defensive Backs/Special Teams coach
Columbia (1991 – Varsity team): Outside Linebackers/Safety coach
New Hampshire (1992): Running Backs coach
Johns Hopkins (1993): Defensive Coordinator
New Hampshire (1994-2006): Running Backs coach (1994-96); Offensive Line coach (1997-98) and Offensive Coordinator (1999-2006)
Oregon (2007-12): Offensive Coordinator (2007-08) and Head Coach (2009-2012)
Philadelphia Eagles (2013-15): Head Coach
San Francisco 49ers (2016): Head Coach
UCLA (2018-2023): Head Coach
Ohio State (2024-present): Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks coach
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Chip Kelly Ohio State: Former UCLA coach takes over as Buckeyes offensive coordinator
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Publish date : 2024-08-30 23:01:00
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