Ryan Day considers innovation Chip Kelly can bring to Ohio State offense

Chip Kelly has coached at the collegiate level since 1990 but he hasn’t lost his creative spark. At the 2024 Big Ten Media Days, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day shared how the Buckeyes’ new offensive coordinator will innovate the program’s offense.

“Some of the ideas that he’s bringing to the table are things that we hadn’t really considered here, so that’s exciting,” Day said. “Ultimately, it’s going to come down to what are the right plays that fit our guys. There’s a million plays and we got playbooks up to here, and we got film going back a long way, we’ve done a lot of things on offense. He’s done a lot of things on offense.

“But, what are the right things for the guys that we have? And that’s going to be the key. And then, what is our fastball? The best teams and the best offenses are like, ‘This is what we’re running and you got to stop us.’ That, to me, is what we got to really identify in this preseason and just hammer it home.”

Kelly boasts a résumé that’s nearly impossible to find in an assistant coach. Kelly has been the head coach at Oregon and UCLA. Additionally, he spent four years in the NFL, leading the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.

He has a remarkable 81-41 all-time record as a head coach at the collegiate level. Most recently, he led UCLA to an 8-5 overall record in 2023, capped off by a convincing win over Boise State in the LA Bowl.

For his efforts, Kelly has been named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year twice and was the Maxwell Club Coach of the Year in 2013. Before Kelly ever took over at any blue-chip programs, he spent 12 years on New Hampshire’s staff — the same staff that coached Day from 1998-2001.

Ryan Day claims the pair might pull out a few plays from their days at New Hampshire during the upcoming season.

“It’ll be interesting. He’s got files that go back a long way,” Day said. “Maybe there’ll be some things that get popped out. If it is, we’ll have to figure out how we can match it up to what it looked like.

“It’d look a lot different when it’s our quarterbacks running it certainly, than when I ran it. But, rarely are there new ideas. It’s just ideas that are recycled and then finding the right ones for our guys. But, Chip’s got a long library of plays.”