Chip Kelly’s idea to step back from being a head coach and leave UCLA to become an offensive coordinator elsewhere started coming to life during UCLA’s bowl practices.
After former UCLA quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson left the Bruins to become the offensive coordinator at Oregon State, Kelly took over quarterback-coaching duties himself as the Bruins prepared to play Boise State in the LA Bowl. Taking on that responsibility reminded Kelly how much he loved being a position coach.
“I just started to think, like I hadn't actually coached a position since 2008,” Kelly said. “My wife remarked, she was like, ‘I haven't seen you this happy in a long time.’ And, to me, the best part of football is football. And so you got to do football, and not do some of the things involved with the head coaching deal.
“And I had a chance after we beat Boise in the bowl game and as we started recruiting, just to kind of think about what that experience was like, and then I get to make the decision on what my future’s going to be. And so what do I want to do? So I started to look into ‘Is there an opportunity?’ And it would have had to been the right spot to go somewhere and just coach a position again and be back with that group.”
Kelly found the right spot about eight weeks after UCLA’s LA Bowl win over Boise State. When Bill O’Brien left Ohio State following a brief stint as the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator to become the head coach at Boston College, Ryan Day moved quickly to hire Kelly, who resigned his position as UCLA’s head coach to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
“I wasn't leaving to take a head coaching job somewhere else. I wasn't thinking that the grass is greener at another university,” Kelly said. “It was just in my personal situation, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to take an opportunity to go be a position coach and a coordinator and that's how it fit.”
While leaving a Power 5 head coaching job to become an offensive coordinator in the same conference is certainly an unconventional move, Kelly is gladly giving up the CEO responsibilities that come with being a head coach so that can focus on calling offensive plays and coaching quarterbacks.
“There's a story about John Lennon when he was a little kid, that had an assignment of ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And he said, ‘I want to be happy.’ And then his teacher said, ‘I don't think you understand the assignment.’ And his mom said, ‘I don't think you understand life,’” Kelly said. “So I just want to be happy. And I'm really happy coaching the position. Really happy to be at this place. It would have taken a special place for me to leave UCLA, because I love those players and I love that coaching staff, but to be here with Ryan, had a great relationship, I’ve known Ryan since he was a little kid. So I think a lot of things just fell into place that way.”
Kelly’s new job at Ohio State is his first job as an assistant coach since Oregon promoted him from offensive coordinator to head coach in 2009. Since then, Kelly has been the head coach of four different teams, leading the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles for three years and the San Francisco 49ers for one in between six years as Oregon’s head coach and six years leading UCLA.
It creates a new dynamic for Kelly and Day, who served as Kelly’s quarterbacks coach with the Eagles and 49ers and was coached by Kelly during his playing career at New Hampshire, where Kelly was the offensive coordinator while Day was UNH’s quarterback. Neither of them anticipates any awkwardness in that dynamic, though, because of the close friendship they’ve maintained with one another for decades.
“We've been friends and we continue to be friends,” Day said. “I owe much of where I'm at right now to him. And so this isn't about any of that, as opposed to a couple guys part of a great program right now that are trying to go chase some great goals. And he's been great. He's really done a great job already of connecting with a bunch of the staff members and coaches, but more importantly the players. And it's going to be a fun journey to go on.”
While Day will be delegating offensive play-calling duties for the first time as a head coach, entrusting Kelly with that responsibility, Kelly understands that Day will have the final say on program matters and says he’s comfortable with that arrangement.
“I certainly understand my role. I'm not Al Haig,” Kelly said, referencing the former Secretary of State who famously claimed to be in charge when former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt. “I'm not in charge here … I certainly understand that, and I actually kind of relish it, because I really love the scheming part. I love the individual part. I love being in the meeting room with the quarterbacks and trying to game plan.
“But everything we do here is collaborative. You know, the one thing that really struck me when I walked in this place is there's an amazing coaching staff here, and if you get a chance to talk to Larry Johnson just about football or Tim Walton or Jim Knowles or Brian Hartline, or any of these guys that are on the staff here, it's a very collaborative effort. I think everybody's on the same page. It’s not our offense and their defense. It’s Ohio State, and it's Ohio State versus the 12 opponents that we're going to play during the regular season, and then beyond. So it's really collaborative, and that's the thing I like, just in the short time that I've been here, is how collaborative everybody's been. We're all trying to make each other better and we're all trying to develop this team.”
“I just want to be happy. And I'm really happy coaching the position. Really happy to be at this place.”– Chip Kelly on leaving UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator
Asked if his decision to leave UCLA was driven by the recruiting and fundraising demands placed upon head coaches in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, Kelly said he enjoyed the relationships he was able to build with people through those duties in previous jobs. But he thinks there will be plenty of head coaches who follow his lead so that they can spend more time coaching football again rather than being a program CEO.
“I can't tell you how many coaches that have called me since I made this decision that said, ‘I'm two years behind you, brother,’ that are thinking the same exact way,” Kelly said.
That said, Kelly is not treating his new job as a precursor to retirement. The 60-year-old plans to continue coaching for many years to come, and he believes working alongside Day at Ohio State is the ideal place for him to do so right now.
“I just entertained some opportunities, and I felt like this was the best fit. But I never thought about quitting or not coaching,” Kelly said. “I'm gonna coach, and I'm gonna die. That’s how I think about things. I was talking to someone I was with on the Nike trip and they were like, ‘How much longer are you gonna go?’ And I said, ‘I could go another 15-20 years.’ I don't think about retirement, I don't think about any of those things. That's just kind of my mindset. I love football, and as long as I can be part of this game, I'll be part of this game.”
