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Greetings from “Can’t Wait For Saturday,” your morning morsel of college football, courtesy of longtime Illini beat writer, AP Top 25 voter and Heisman state rep Bob Asmussen. He’ll give you his views each day on the game he loves.
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Time for a two-parter on the change at UCLA. Today, a look at why Chip Kelly left a head coaching job to become an offensive coordinator at Ohio State. That’s called a step back. Monday, I’ll suggest what the Bruins should do next.
Kelly’s coaching history is certainly unusual. After starting his coaching career on the defensive side of the ball at Columbia, Kelly built his reputation as an offensive guru while at New Hampshire.
I had to look up the FCS school’s nickname (it is the Wildcats).
Kelly’s work was impressive enough to land him the job as Mike Bellotti’s offensive coordinator at Oregon in 2007.
Two years later, when Bellotti became Oregon’s athletic director, Kelly was the logical choice to replace him.
And Kelly was stunningly successful. In four seasons, his teams went 46-7, played for one national title and finished ranked in The Associated Press top five three times. The Ducks played in a BCS bowl all four of his seasons.
He could have stayed there — and won — forever. But the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles called after the 2012 season and he felt he had to go.
In three seasons with the Eagles, he went 26-21 with one playoff appearance and was fired.
The 49ers hired him and he lasted one 2-14 season before getting fired again.
Kelly returned to college coaching in 2018 at UCLA. He didn’t find the kind of success he had earlier at Oregon, going 35-34 in six seasons. He won just 10 games in his first three years with the Bruins, but had more success the final three.
Still, the perception out there is that he jumped before…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cant-wait-saturday-kelly-makes-155700315.html
Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Publish date : 2024-02-11 15:57:00
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