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In December of 2017, Chip Kelly was the hottest name on the college football coaching market — and what a market it was.
Florida wanted him.
Tennessee made an offer.
Nebraska checked in.
Arizona State was intrigued.
But Kelly, fresh off head coaching stints with two different NFL teams, wanted UCLA for his much-anticipated return to college football. He wanted the city life of Los Angeles. He wanted the challenge of turning a perennial underachiever into a contender. He wanted to do something befitting the iconoclastic and quirky personality he had cultivated at every stop from small colleges in New England to the big-time at Oregon.
Nobody else in the profession would have picked UCLA among the array of options he had at his disposal six years ago. Kelly did.
And now he leaves it pretty much as he found it: A sad-sack, aimless mess of a football program that may need years to recover from the damage that has been done.
Chip Kelly runs onto the field at the Rose Bowl before a UCLA game against Utah.
How badly did Kelly want out of UCLA by the end? For the last few weeks, his representatives had floated his name for pretty much every offensive coordinator job in the NFL. As it turned out, the team that rescued him came not just in the college ranks but in the conference UCLA will be joining next year.
If the Bruins didn’t have a full picture of what they’ll be up against in the Big Ten, it will be shown in stark relief when Kelly is on the sidelines at Ohio State calling plays for his protégé Ryan Day.
It would be one thing if UCLA had fired Kelly and his next career move was taking a step back and being a coordinator for a little while. But to do it on his own volition? Willfully going a rung down the career ladder while jumping to a team in the same conference?
Yikes, UCLA.
KELLY LEAVING UCLA: Expected to become Ohio…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/coach-chip-kelly-bolts-ucla-210400824.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-02-09 21:04:00
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