Ryan Day jokes about his expectations for Chip Kelly's Ohio State offense in 2024: 'Hopefully we're scoring points'

Head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes made one of the biggest splash hires of the offseason when they brought in legendary offensive mind Chip Kelly to be the team’s next offensive coordinator.

Now, with the season rapidly approaching, Day made an appearance on Get Up. There, he joked about what his expectations are going to be for both the offense and for Kelly in the 2024 season.

“Hopefully we’re scoring points,” Ryan Day laughed. “That’s why we brought him in.”

Given Chip Kelly’s coaching history, scoring points should be something he’s capable of doing, especially when it’s his focus as a coach. As the head coach at Oregon, he revolutionized offense in college football before taking a shot at the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and later the San Francisco 49ers.

Since returning to the college level, Kelly has been the head coach at UCLA. However, he caught people by surprise by willingly moving to Ohio State to be a coordinator instead. It’s a move that led to him working alongside Day again, who he has a long history with.

“But I think the thing for me is I’ve had a great background with Chip. He and I have been friends for a long time. He was a mentor to me growing up and [I] certainly learned a lot from him and the way he approached things,” Day said.

“His ability to just focus on the offense calling plays is exciting or all of us, including him, and it’s been great to work together. It’s exciting to collaborate this season and see where this season takes us.”

Chip Kelly and Ryan Day are both offensive minds from New Hampshire. There, Day played for the Wildcats while Kelly was the team’s offensive coordinator. He’d go on to be an assistant coach in the NFL under Kelly before going to Ohio State.

That familiarity between Day and Kelly is going to be helpful as the Buckeyes as Ohio State is undergoing major changes in terms of offensive personnel, including at quarterback.

Ryan Day opens up on how Ohio State landed on Chip Kelly as next offensive coordinator

Seeing Chip Kelly move from one Big Ten school to another caught many by surprise. Now, it’s a move that Ryan Day has opened up about.

“Well, when the decision was made to hire an offensive coordinator, I had an A-list, a B-list, and then kind of a C-list. Chip was on the A-list. So was Bill O’Brien,” Day said.

“The timing wasn’t right. I kind of reached out to Chip and said, ‘Hey, I know this is kind of a crazy idea but what do you think?’. And I don’t think it was easy for him. I think there was a lot going on – he has got his team, he has got his staff. So there’s just a lot going on there. I thought maybe we had a chance but the timing wasn’t right. We had to make a decision because of recruiting and so it was great to have an opportunity to hire Bill… (O’Brien) had the right turnaround, had an opportunity to go to Boston College…So then I tried him again…We talked a little bit longer. But it was not easy for him because there’s a lot going on there.”