Former Ohio State OC Chip Kelly interviews for open college football offensive coordinator job after being fired by the Raiders
Chip Kelly may soon be back at the college football level after the jump back to the NFL didn’t work.
Coordinator searches are nothing new for Ryan Day as the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and there’s one underway now.
With Brian Hartline off to South Florida after the College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes will have a new offensive coordinator again in 2026. Hartline served just one season in the role after taking the play-calling duties from Chip Kelly following his jump to the NFL. Kelly lasted just 11 games as the offensive coordinator of the Las Vegas Raiders before they moved on.
Chip Kelly could be looking to jump back to the college level
According to On3’s Pete Nakos, Kelly has interviewed for the open Georgia Tech offensive coordinator job. Kelly could be back at the college level, where he was last, as the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator in 2024. Kelly was always looking to make the jump back to the NFL, and the opportunity came about with the Raiders after Ohio State won the national championship.
Kelly was the UCLA head coach from 2018 through 2023 and was the head coach in the NFL for four seasons before that, between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. Before becoming the Oregon Ducks head coach in 2009, where he spent four seasons, he called the offense for two years in Eugene. Kelly has an abundance of coaching experience at the NFL and college football levels at age 62.
Ohio State is unlikely to bring back Chip Kelly to replace Brian Hartline
Let’s get this out of the way: if the Buckeyes had interest in bringing Kelly back after being gone for a year, he wouldn’t be interviewing for the Georgia Tech job. Kelly would be a seamless fit with his last experience in the program, but that’s clearly not the direction that Day plans to go to replace Hartline. Kelly wouldn’t be a long-term answer at the job either, so it’s probably best for Ohio State to go in another direction.
Ohio State will have its choice of highly qualified offensive coordinators when the hire is made. There doesn’t seem to be any rush by the staff to get that done with Hartline still in the building through the CFP, and the majority of the focus is on the games ahead.
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