Jul 24, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins coach Chip Kelly during Pac-12 football media day at Hollywood & Highland. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Chip Kelly has seemingly been looking for an exit route from UCLA, and he found it Friday in the form of one major offensive coordinator role.
Kelly is leaving UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports. Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that a deal between the two sides is imminent, and other reports stated that Kelly had already told UCLA players that he would be leaving.
Kelly’s decision is a fairly bizarre one, as there is no precedent for a Power 5 head coach leaving to take an offensive coordinator job with a school that is now a conference rival. However, the UCLA coach has seemingly wanted out for a while, as he was in the running for several offensive coordinator jobs at the NFL level. Few would have expected him to leave for a college offensive coordinator job, but there was clearly major appeal in the Ohio State job once it unexpectedly became open again , with rumors about it starting to emerge within the last day or two.