Chip Kelly dishes on Ryan Day's growth from QB recruit in New Hampshire to coaching Ohio State

Chip Kelly becoming Ohio State‘s offensive coordinator is surely a full circle moment for himself and Buckeyes’ head coach Ryan Day.

The two New Hampshire natives both played college football for the FCS New Hampshire Wildcats. Except when Day played, Kelly was a member of the team’s coaching staff.

Day would go on to start his coaching career at New Hampshire immediately following his playing career under Kelly. And now that the roles have been reversed and Kelly is coaching under Day, the Buckeyes’ new OC spoke on Day’s evolution from a player to the coach he is today.

“It’s still the same way, even since he was playing little league he was the ultimate competitor and he was always trying to find a way to win. He was great at a lot of sports: baseball, basketball, football. I got an opportunity to recruit him,” Kelly said following Ohio State’s first spring practice. “So I got to coach him when I was at New Hampshire, I recruited him out of high school and we grew up really close to each other so same elementary school, same high school, same junior high, same college. So I’ve known him for a really long time.”

It’s clear that Kelly and Day go way, way back, now joining forces yet again this time at one of college football’s powerhouse programs.

Day also worked under Kelly for one season apiece during his stint as an NFL head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Fransisco 49ers in 2015 and 2016. But even in 2024, Kelly still sees the same traits he saw in his record-breaking quarterback at New Hampshire in the head coach of the Buckeyes.

“But that competitive fire burns deep with him and that’s the one thing I’ve always admired with him. And he’s got an amazing athletic brain in terms of how to process things and how to put people in position to make plays. He’s always been that prototypical coach on the field no matter what sport he was playing,” Kelly explained.

“So I knew he was destined to be a coach and I was fortunate in my career as a head coach to have him on my staff at a couple places, so I got a chance to see him work firsthand. I got to see him work firsthand as a player and then as a coach, so the success he had is not surprising to me.”

Ryan Day boasts an impressive 56-8 record as Ohio State’s head coach. But his former mentor will now look to help him take the Buckeyes program to the next level as they pursue a national championship this upcoming season.