How Chip Kelly’s departure to the NFL impacts the Ohio State football program

Posted by author February 2, 2025 Football

Spread the love

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ryan Day’s mentor is leaving him after one season as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.

Last offseason, when Day was ready to give up play-calling, his first thought was to call Chip Kelly, who was still the head coach at UCLA. But Kelly wasn’t ready to make that move yet, so Day ended up hiring Bill O’Brien.

Less than a month later, O’Brien left to become Boston College’s head coach, giving Day a chance to circle back around to the man who has played various roles in his life.

This time, Kelly was ready. He took over the Buckeyes’ quarterback room and play-calling duties. As such, Kansas State transfer Will Howard had the best year of his career with a Big Ten-best best 4,010 passing yards and 35 touchdowns while completing 73% of his passes.

Howard was going to be a one-and-done quarterback in Columbus. Apparently, that applies to his position coach, too, as Kelly is headed to the NFL as the Las Vegas Raiders’ new offensive coordinator.

Day and Kelly’s reunion was probably never meant to be long-term. Day was ready to grow as a head coach, and in Kelly, he had the perfect person to help him do that. There’s no one in football he trusts more.

Kelly needed an out from what college football had become. He just wanted to think about what was happening on the field instead of all the stuff that was happening off of it, and being Day’s coordinator allowed him to do that.

The 2024 season served as a buffer for both while chasing a national championship. And they got everything they could’ve wanted out of it.

Day has finally gone full “CEO mode” as a college football head coach, validated by his first national title. Kelly got back to being all about football. Now he returns to the NFL for the first time since 2016.

In 2024 the two helped each other take important steps. For Day, that was an important step in helping him get over the hump. He’s gone from possibly being on the hot seat and now sitting comfortably on top of the college football world.

Day heads into an offseason having to replace both his Kelly and his defensive coordinator, as Jim Knowles left for Penn State; as well as his offensive line coach, Justin Frye (Arizona Cardinals); and also has to fight off teams trying to steal his players. Despite all that, he’s in a far better place than he was a year ago.

Just like many other things in his career as both an athlete and a coach, he has his mentor to thank for that — even if this time around, their time together was temporary.