Oregon’s Chip Kelly Headed To Tampa
By Keith Myers
Update: It seems the Chip Kelly pulled out of talks at the 11th hour, and is returning to Oregon saying “his heart is in college footballl.”
I’m a bit surprised at this. College recruiting is at least partially based on continuity, and Kelly interviewing for NFL jobs cast a big shadow on that.
Normally I don’t cover things that happen in college football except for things that effect the NFL draft. Today is the exception because it matters so much regionally. University of Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has accepted the job to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On one hand, this is quite a surprising hire. Kelly is an offensive minded coach who runs a “made for college football” offense. The likelihood that Kelly’s spread option attack will work against NFL defenses isn’t high. I find it tough to believe that Kelly last long with the Bucs unless he switches to an NFL offense, and if that’s the case, why hire Kelly at all?
On the other hand, this isn’t a surprising hire at all. Kelly’s name has been linked to the Oakland job, then the Indianapolis job, and then finally the job down in Tampa. He clearly was interested in the NFL or he wouldn’t have kept coming up on everyone’s radar. All it took was someone willing to meet his demands and he was headed to the NFL.
Kelly takes over a team that completely quit on former coach Raheem Morris. Tampa last their last 10 games, falling to a 4-12 record. There is talent there, though, with both QB Josh Freeman and former Oregon Duck LaGarrette Blount in place on the offense.