Why Chip Kelly's skillset is a better fit as an offensive coordinator than a head coach

Some might look at a move from head coach to offensive coordinator as a demotion in college football. However, in Chip Kelly’s case, it’s a form of promotion based on what he still brings to the table.

Lettermen Row’s Spencer Holbrook spoke during an appearance on ‘Andy Staples On3’ about Ohio State’s hire of Kelly as their offensive coordinator. In his opinion, it’s a positive career move for Kelly, even with him no longer being a head coach, because some of the aspects of recruiting will come off of his list of responsibilities considering who else is in the building.

“I don’t think that Chip is being brought in needing to recruit,” Holbrook explained. “Justin Frye is going to recruit the offensive line. Each of the position coaches have their unit running pretty well on the recruiting trail. The head coach is a quarterback coach who gets praised every time that CJ Stroud steps up to the microphone. So, like, Chip really doesn’t have to do a lot of recruiting.”

“I think the best thing that Chip Kelly could do on the recruiting trail is be in the building when recruits show up. ‘Hey, here’s Chip Kelly, our offensive coordinator! Remember the neon green Oregon jerseys? Yeah. That was the coach!'” said Holbrook. “So, like, it won’t be that hard to sell Chip Kelly on the recruiting trail to have guys come play for him. I really think that he can help their recruiting but he’s not going to be asked to do the dirty work, the heavy lifting.”

Kelly’s stance in terms of recruiting will be a different. It’s in a form of contrast to that of Bill O’Brien had he become the offensive coordinator as originally planned. It can still be effective, though, considering the resumé of his own career.

“Bill O’Brien? You get on the phone with recruits and say, ‘Hey! Remember when I coached Tom Brady?’. And, ‘Remember when I did this with Penn State? And actually made a couple of quarterbacks who weren’t any good look pretty good?’. That was the recruiting pitch with Bill O’Brien,” said Holbrook.

“Now, with Chip Kelly? I think that he’s going to be able to recruit running backs better than quarterbacks. Ryan Day knows what he’s doing recruiting quarterbacks,” Holbrook said. “Chip Kelly can just get on the phone and talk about the NFL guys that he has coached. The college offenses that he put out there, the rushing attack that he was able to do.”

Kelly stepped away in Pasadena after six seasons as the head coach at UCLA. He did so after the relationship had shifted over the past few months with rumors of him being on the hot seat to end the season along with him taking interviews for a new job over the past few weeks. That, at the end of last week, turned into the gig in Columbus. It came after O’Brien backed out to take the head coaching job at Boston College.

There’s a lot on the plate of a head coach in this day and age. Between coaching along with recruiting, the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness among other responsibilities, it’s a lot on all of their plates, especially under the bright lights of Los Angeles.

That’s why, in his new role with the Buckeyes, Holbrook believes Kelly may be more fit for this as a playcaller than as the leader of a program.

“The recruiting aspect? We didn’t really think about it when he first gets hired on Friday because he’s going to come call plays and the rest of the offensive staff is going to keep doing their thing,” said Holbrook. “It’s not as much of a recruiting piece at all.”

“I think it was smart of Ryan Day to look at his staff, see the lineup of recruiters that he has already, and say, ‘Okay, we don’t really need a recruiter at the offensive coordinator position? We’ve got the recruiters that we want. Now we need to go find a ball coach who can just call plays and be a ball coach,'” Holbrook said. “Chip Kelly wanted to do that and that’s exactly what he gets to do now.”