Chip Kelly and Florida a mostly perfect fit
GAINESVILLE — What started as a fascinating but seemingly unlikely weekend rumor now appears increasingly possible: Florida might hire Chip Kelly as its next head football coach.
First, Pete Thamel confirmed that Florida was, in fact, vetting Kelly as a candidate to replace Jim McElwain, who “parted ways” with Florida following the school’s 42-7 defeat to Georgia late last month.
Now, reputable South Florida sports agent and two-time Florida alum Darren Heitner reported Monday that Florida had received the blessing of the SEC office to hire Kelly, if they choose, clearing yet another necessary, and perhaps the most difficult, obstacle in employing the former Eagles, 49ers and Oregon head coach.
I’m now hearing that SEC commissioner has chosen to not stand in way of Florida hiring Chip Kelly if he is the school’s selection. Reporting with @biggamejames36.
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) November 14, 2017
The permission was necessary thanks to a now-expired “show cause” penalty that Kelly picked up following his tenure at the University of Oregon. But despite the period of the NCAA’s penalty phase of the show cause having elapsed, the SEC recently passed a rule mandating that commissioner approval be obtained on all hires where a “show cause” had previously been in effect. Heitner’s report indicates Florida has taken this step, the latest sign in a mounting pile of evidence that Florida has zeroed in on Kelly as either the top, or one of the top, candidates for their head coaching vacancy.
Show cause aside, Kelly, who has an astounding 46-7 as head coach at Oregon before darting to the NFL, has an outstanding resume and certainly would be a splash hire for a program that has not made the “big hire” since it signed Urban Meyer up for the gig in 2004. At the time, Meyer was coming off a 12-0 year at Utah and was easily the hottest young name on the coaching market.
Kelly’s reputation as an offensive innovator also appears to meet one of Scott Stricklin’s key requirements for Florida’s next head coach.
At the press conference announcing Florida was moving on from Jim McElwain, Stricklin said that he’d look for a coach who could make Florida football fun again.
“Being in this league for 25 years, when Florida has been really good, from a distance it has looked really fun and I want it to be really fun,” Stricklin said. “Our fans, they deserve it to be really fun. I want our players and student-athletes to have a lot of fun, like this is a rewarding experience to come here and get a degree from a top-10 public university and to play at one of the storied football programs in the country.”
Hiring Kelly would certainly check that box, and provide an instant jolt of momentum to a Florida offense — and program — mired in mediocrity for most this decade.
But after Florida won a news cycle or two and Kelly won the press conference, is it a good fit?
The thinking here is it’s an outstanding one.
For one, Kelly is an offensive guru, the architect of a high-tempo, high-flying diabolically smart spread offense that took the Pac-12 and nation by storm at Oregon. Including Kelly’s years as Oregon’s offensive coordinator (2007-08), here’s what his offenses looked like with the Ducks:
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For a Gators offense that has spent most the decade around the century mark in both of the categories above, that’s a revelation.
What’s more, Kelly’s preferred formula, which involves coupling elite athletes with a spread system, is similar to the one Urban Meyer used to capture two national championships and compete for a third in Gainesville. The only difference is Kelly would be given the keys to the program of the flagship university in Florida with all its attendant recruiting advantages, instead of Oregon, where Kelly had minimal talent in-state and had to claw and fight and scrap across the rest of Pac-12 territory to get the players he needed to execute his preferred style of offense.
Florida has tried pro-style offenses for nearly a decade and failed. The Gators have ruled the SEC roost when they’ve stayed mostly original and coupled an innovative system with their innate recruiting advantage and access to in-state speed. That’s a perfect match for what Kelly wants to do.
There’s some merit, of course, to the idea that Chip Kelly isn’t particularly fond of recruiting. But there’s a difference between the tough, yeoman’s work of recruiting at Oregon, a school with almost no in-state recruiting base, and recruiting at Florida, where as the flagship university, UF has a host of internal advantages, even in the cutthroat world of the SEC. It seems likely simply hiring a “name” like Kelly would help initially, and Kelly — no dummy — could fill his staff with lethal recruiters the way Jimbo Fisher has done at FSU.
Second, there’s a misnomer going around that Kelly’s offense excelled in a weaker, smaller, less fast Pac-12. That’s pure applesauce, Finebaum fanboy fiction.
In reality, Kelly’s spread eviscerated powerful defenses in the Pac-12, led by brilliant coaches. Ask Pete Carroll what happened in 2009 (600 yards, 47 points). Ask the father of the Tampa 2, Monte Kiffin, if he still has nightmares about 2012 (62 points, 700 yards!) Ask Bret Bielema, Chris Ash and Charlie Partridge about the Rose Bowl when they surrendered 600+ yards and 45 points to the Ducks. Or Vic Fangio, now the Chicago Bears defensive coordinator, about the 600 yards and 52 points Richard Sherman and Stanford gave up to Kelly’s offense in 2010. With Florida speed and athletes, there’s no reason this offense can’t do similar wonders in the SEC.
The same is true of the NFL failure critique.
Steve Spurrier’s high-flying offenses revolutionized the SEC, but he was average at best with the Redskins. Nevertheless, he didn’t forget how to coach, and took South Carolina to historic levels by Gamecocks program standards when he returned to the SEC. Like Spurrier, Nick Saban also failed in the NFL. His return to college has gone decently. Chip Kelly — like every coach from here until the end of the planet — is unlikely to emulate Saban’s accomplishments at Alabama. But NFL failure doesn’t signpost failure upon return to college football.
The football reality is Kelly’s offenses, with the right personnel, took the NFL by storm, at least initially, until Chip Kelly “GM” got in the way. In his first two seasons with the Eagles, Kelly’s offenses finished 2nd and 5th in yards per game, and over the two years, according to Football Outsiders, finished first in rushing yards, yards per play, and rushing yards per attempt.
Having success offensively at both levels should help Kelly recruit.
Finally, while many in Gator nation may long for someone with ties to the culture- Charlie Strong, for example — or the “next great young thing” — Scott Frost, perhaps — the reality is Kelly is a proven winner.
Strong is a Gator through and through and a defensive mastermind, but his background in defense and failures at Texas would disappoint the fan base.
Frost is the hot young coach, to be sure, but Kelly is only 53. For perspective, Mark Richt took the Miami job at 57, and has the Canes unbeaten in Year 2. Nick Saban was 56 when he took the Alabama job, for more perspective. Frost is also part of Kelly’s coaching tree, getting his big break in coaching when Kelly hired him to coach receivers at Oregon. Why hire the protege when you can hire the master?
In other words, if Scott Stricklin can pull this hire off, it’s a home run — and one that comes at a time when people were beginning to again question what the longterm ceiling was for a Florida program that had appeared to retreat into the wilderness it had wandered for most of eight decades until Steve Spurrier arrived in 1990.
Except … that Kelly is a liar, an NCAA disaster, and was hated by his players in Philly, who had enough power to freely say so, unlike the Ducks. By all means, hire Kelly and be the next Ol’ Miss.
Since you’re so good at looking into the future, why don’t you tell us all when Mizzou is gonna win the East again!
Better yet, tell us when Mizzou will ever be relevant
Mizzou will take the east before Florida does.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha o man thanks for that PC717, made my night
Odom better start pulling in some top 15 classes then.
Probably. They still are a second tier program whose high water mark is an unclaimed National title in 07.
They’ve been irrelevant since before Vietnam
Hey boys, I never mentioned Mizzou. You should be in politics — based upon you deflect arguments because you can’t defend the real one.
Buy the way, I live in Florida.
Chip doesn’t like to recruit, so he violates NCAA rules, blames his assistants for the fracus, then hires them, Hummmm. I guess money makes loyalty, right?
He didn’t get punishment, ran away, failed in the NFL … now Florida wants to hire him? After 3 years of problems, that’s just what they need — the NCAA all over their backs. They don’t forget, especially the ones that got away.
P.S: Ask Coach Pearl how that lingering NCAA onus thing works out.
Next time, blame my comment on Wikileaks. (rolls eyes)
Scoreboard
savage
Lifetime
MIZ 4 – UF 2
MIZ 4 – UT 3
Lifetime scoreboard
“Looking into the future” would be the mistake. You don’t look to the future when all the answers are already there in the past. It’s called history.
“Looking into the future” would be the mistake. You don’t look to the future when all the answers are already there in the past. It’s called history.
When LSU faced Kelly in 2011, his was the 2nd best offense LSU faced that year. The best was Holgorsen’s offense at West Virginia, led by Geno Smith. Both were good. LSU needed turnovers to beat both teams. Thank you, Tyrann Mathieu.
Tyrann Mathieu was LSU’s best offense that year. I still remember the SECCG. Good lord he was special. I was glad to see him leave lol
Seems like it SHOULD work, but Kelley has baggage. He isn’t the new up and comer with energy, he’s not from the area, can’t recruit, doesn’t care about defense, and really has no loyalty to offer Florida. Things do t go well after year 3? Then what happens?
His goofy disposition on the sidelines doesn’t help him either.
Kelly is going to be the second coming of CSS or he going to burn the Florida program to the ground. He’s not known for getting along with others and he has said he doesn’t like to recruit. Maybe he can recapture the Oregon magic, but the modern SEC is a much different beast than what he was used to PAC 12.
People don’t understand. Wow. You know what he said he didn’t like about recruiting? Week long road trips, living in airports. You know what we won’t have to do at Florida? That
You know why he failed in the NFL? He loves building a roster to what he likes. You know what he can do in college that he couldn’t in the NFL? That
thebone, you still have to recruit to be successful at Florida. I know it is a large state crawling with talent. Look around, you have the U, FSU, now UCF all with much better programs than Florida’s grabbing up kids. BTW, guys like Saban and Smart also know how to find Florida on a map. This is a school that still can’t find a QB 10 years after Tebow. Recruiting takes work and handholding because these 285 lb children need to have their hands held.
One more thing. The alumni and booster base in Florida is very demanding. Why do you think Spurrier and Urban Meyer left? An arrogant blowhard from the NFL will find it tough sledding in Gainesville, the first time he loses to Mizzou and TN. Which will be next year.
Screw, Kelly, and Gruden I want Frost in Knoxville. Florida would be insane to pass on him. If they do please snatch him up Jon
I agree with you… I think Kelly shouldn’t be Florida’s first choice. They should offer whatever it takes for Frost. If they don’t I pray he doesn’t land anywhere else in the SEC.
IMO Frost should be at the top of every Power 5 school with a opening. IMO he’s the next big coach in CFB. Please come to Knoxville coach.
So I don’t like this at all. I lived in OR for a couple years and saw his undersized teams full of guys you never heard of run it up on everyone. Yeah there were a couple of losses, but when you add in the Belotti wins (which came because of Chips offense), that is a LOT of winning. In Oregon. I don’t even think that’s in America. I think we had to bring a passport on our house hunting trip.
Can we start talking about how Mizzou is a better fit in the West again?
Replacing who?