Ryan Day on handing play-calling to Chip Kelly: 'I'm excited'
This season, Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day is handing the play-calling over to Chip Kelly. It’s a change that Day says he’s excited about.
While it is a big change for Day, who has been a play-caller throughout his career. It’s also one he feels comfortable making right now.
“I’m excited,” Ryan Day said. “I’m excited. Again, we’ve got a long way to go and there’s a lot of storms coming and nothing’s going to be easy. It just isn’t. It’s just the way the game of football is.”
There is a lot of familiarity between Day and Kelly. While at New Hampshire, Day played for Kelly. He later coached for him in the NFL at two different stops. So, he’s clearly comfortable with his new offensive coordinator.
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Another key to the decision is that Ryan Day has a lot of faith in his coaching staff on offense as a whole. That includes Chip Kelly but also goes well beyond him.
“I do like the way the offensive staff has come together. I like the way they’re working together. Chip has been great with the staff. He’s got ideas. He’s got a different perspective. Things are gonna look a little different but he’s also embraced who we are as an offense and what we do,” Day said.
“I think Brian Hartline has been unbelievable. Just in the day-to-day and what he brings. Justin Frye, he and Tim Drevno, they’ve done a nice job working together. Keenan Bailey, Carlos Locklyn, I mean, I think it’s a good group together. I think we all work well together. But it’s gonna be a long road so that chemistry is gonna be important.”
Ohio State will have a home game against Akron to open the season. It’s with that game that they’ll need to get comfortable with how the offense is being run.
Ryan Day reveals Chip Kelly will call games from the press box
One notable change for Chip Kelly is that he’ll coach from the press box. That decision is one that Ryan Day feels is best for everyone.
“His plan is to be up in the box. I think, for him, being able to get organized up there. He’s got the tablet up there. He’s got his call sheet up there. He can really be clean after every series. I think that’s one of the things two that he and I were talking about was that when you’re on the sideline and you’re the head coach, you have your call sheet, but it’s hard to get your next series ready when you’re doing all these other things,” Day said.
“When you’re up there, you’ve got a desk, you can sit down and you get your thoughts organized for the next series. You can go through everything. You can communicate well. So, that’s gonna be his plan.”