Former Ohio State Buckeyes coach Chip Kelly decides to take another job right in the Big Ten after failed jump back to the NFL
Chip Kelly is coming back to the Big Ten.
When Chip Kelly left for the NFL after last season’s national championship, Ryan Day faced a decision for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Kelly’s decision to go to the NFL led the Buckeyes to promote Brian Hartline to be the team’s next offensive coordinator and play-caller. Kelly’s stint with the Las Vegas Raiders ended up lasting 11 games before he was let go by head coach Pete Carroll. Now, Kelly is heading back to the college ranks.
Chip Kelly is heading back to the Big Ten to be an offensive coordinator
After leaving Ohio State last January for the NFL, Kelly is finishing the year by re-joining the Big Ten. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Kelly is set to be the next offensive coordinator for the Northwestern Wildcats. This came shortly after Kelly interviewed for the Georgia Tech offensive coordinator job, a sign that he was heading back to the college ranks.
Kelly spent just the 2024 season at Ohio State, coming over from UCLA, where he spent 2018-2023 as the Bruins’ head coach. The national championship season for the Buckeyes, combined with just how good the offense was, was enough for Kelly to be propelled into the Raiders’ offensive coordinator job. Las Vegas made Kelly the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL to get him away from Ohio State.
The college ranks are where Kelly originally made his name: as an offensive coordinator at New Hampshire from 1999-2006, then at the Oregon Ducks for two seasons. Kelly was the head coach at Oregon from 2009-2012 before he took the head coach job of the Philadelphia Eagles for three seasons and then coached the San Francisco 49ers for a year in 2016.
Kelly is 62 years old, taking over the Northwestern play-calling job under head coach David Braun. Ohio State is scheduled to play Northwestern in 2026, on a date not yet set. When they do so, they will go up against their former play-caller, who helped them win it all last year.
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