Chip Kelly addresses if he feels pressure taking over as Ohio State OC

There is a portion of the Ohio State fanbase that is frustrated entering the 2024 season. The Buckeyes have dropped three straight games to Michigan and thus gone three straight years without winning a Big Ten title.

Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day made staff changes this offseason to try and get Ohio State over the hump. The biggest one of those was bringing in Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator.

Kelly was asked Tuesday if he feels pressure moving into this role on the Ohio State coaching staff.

“Well, what I’ve always subscribed to is pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what you’re doing,” Kelly said. “So if you don’t want to feel pressure then you should know what you’re doing. So I think it’s part of that.”

It’s clear that Kelly is confident as he takes over the Ohio State offense. His next goal is to make sure that his players are confident, too.

“I think part of our job with our players in terms of the education process is getting them to understand that, too. Is that it’s about your preparation; it’s about you and your development,” Kelly said. “It’s not about that you can’t be governed by what other people say. It’s what’s my mindset and how am I intrinsically motivated and how do I really compete against myself on a daily basis to get a little bit better? We got a little bit better today, because we got out on the field today and got a chance to do some football.”

Kelly’s hope is that Ohio State will continue to get better and better throughout the spring, the preseason and during the season.

If that takes place, he won’t feel pressure, and his players won’t, either.

“The challenge is, when we get back on the field on Thursday, can we be a little bit better than we were on Tuesday? Kelly said. “If we’re doing that, then we keep stacking good days on top of good days, then I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day added that he has a ton of confidence in Kelly. He expects Kelly to improve the Ohio State offense in all areas, most notably the rushing attack.

“He’s made some tweaks already to the run game that I think have been excellent. And we’ll continue to be that way,” Day said.

Day is extremely comfortable with Kelly as his offensive coordinator after playing for him in college and previously coaching alongside him.

“What we’ve done here has been a lot of what I’ve learned from him when I was with him before. So this is not like two different offenses trying to come together. What we’ve done here, there’s been a lot of great things,” Day said. “Again, a lot of what we’ve done has been what I took from him when I came from the NFL from him and when I played for him. … There’s just so many things in common.”