This time a year ago, Chip Kelly was the head coach at UCLA. And after leading the Bruins to an 8-5 record and a win over Boise State in the LA Bowl, the university had planned to have him back. But Kelly had other ideas. And it involved a rare decision to give up his head coaching job to return to being an offensive coordinator.
It’s not unusual for a college head coach to take a coordinator position at the next level. But Kelly was simply moving to another Big Ten team, making for a somewhat unconventional move.
It paid off though. A year later, he helped the Buckeyes win a National Championship and was called back to the NFL by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Fresh off taking the job with the Raiders, I asked Kelly what went into his decision a year ago to give up his head coaching job to become an OC again.
“Part of it was in our bowl game a year ago against Boise [State],” Kelly replied. “Our quarterback coach had left to be the coach at Oregon State and then for those two-and-a-half weeks before the bowl game, I got a chance to coach the quarterbacks again, and coach a position again and I think my wife remarked ‘I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time’.
“But I think you really start to think and get the perspective of the essence of why you do what you do and I’ve really enjoyed the one-on-ones with the quarterbacks and being with a specific group. As a head coach you’re in every meeting. You’re in the Oline meeting then you’re in the Dline meeting, but you miss just having a position group. And I thought about it and when an opportunity presented itself like would you consider not being a head coach anymore, to just be a coordinator and just be a position coach, it was appealing.”
Over a couple months time, Kelly had time to consider what he wanted to do as a coach. And ultimately the answer came from someone who he had a football connection from nearly a quarter century ago.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day’s football career began at New Hampshire under Kelly. And three times since then Day has been on Kelly’s coaching staff. Now 27 years since Day first took the field for Kelly, Day was hiring his former head coach to lead his offense with the Buckeyes. And merger was obviously a great one.
“It just kind of rekindled my love for just coaching football,” Kelly said. “I think sometimes as a head coach those rules turn into like a little bit of a CEO at the college level. With the advent of NIL and the transfer portal I think coaches are getting pulled in a lot of different directions and it’s away from actually coaching football. And I just really enjoy coaching football.”
Coaches and GMs talk about wanting players who love football. Well, it’s a valuable trait in a coach as well. To have a coach who has seen the top of his profession at multiple levels and has decided that the position that the team wants him to be is also where he thrives.
