Evanson: It took 12 years, but Oregon fans can now hate on Chip Kelly — he earned it

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Chip Kelly was a gamechanger for the University of Oregon football program. He made a good program great by way of a 46-7 record, three straight conference championships, and a trip to the national title game in 2011 where they were narrowly defeated by Auburn 22-19.

For all of that he was and even in the wake of his departure, Kelly has been appreciated by a fan base that admired his innovative approach on the field and embraced his quirky demeanor beyond it.

They rooted for him when he left for the Philadelphia Eagles, did the same during his stint with the San Francisco 49ers, and even mostly did similar during his six seasons on the sidelines at UCLA.

But now, 12 years removed from Oregon’s Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State and 4,367 days since he left for the NFL, I’m here to tell you that despite what he did for the program it’s finally OK to “hate” Charles Edward Kelly.

I don’t make that statement lightly, for I’ve always been a big fan of the coach despite his prickly and standoffish personality.

The guy was all about the action between the lines and due to his success, the way he went about things off the field was and should’ve been of little concern to me or anyone else who followed the team.

He seemed to appreciate the culture at the school, embraced the community as a whole, and since leaving has had little less than good things to say about the place and his time at the helm — until last week.

As part of Ohio State’s press conference prior to Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game, the now Buckeye offensive coordinator took a shot at Oregon and head coach Dan Lanning regarding their first meeting in Eugene, where the UO coach deliberately took a 12-men-on-the-field penalty in the game’s final seconds in an effort to game the system. The plan worked, leaving the Buckeyes with just a single play to get within field goal range, and the result of that ensuing play ended the game with the Ducks victorious.

Ohio State went on to get their revenge in a decisive Rose Bowl win over Oregon, and Chip reminded Duck fans of that in a very deliberately lethal attack on their team and coach in his presser last Saturday.

“I’ll tell you what, it was a unique message with our players, you can’t stop us with 11. You had to stop us with 12,” Kelly said. “You saw the final results of 11 versus 11. So that was a message to our team for the week leading up to the Rose Bowl that I think resonated really well with our guys.”

That’s not a passing comment or one that can be described as misconstrued, it was an arrow aimed directly at the heart of Duck coaches and fans, and one that spoke volumes about his severed connection with a place he’s referred to as “special” and a program that he’s said, “I owe a lot to.”

It’s no secret, Oregon fans want a national championship — desperately.

In the last 25 years the Ducks have won nine conference titles, three Rose Bowls, six New Year’s Six bowl games, have been to two national title games, and have even won a Heisman Trophy when Marcus Mariota did the honor in 2014. But what they haven’t done is win it all, and fans of the team are painfully reminded of such whenever they excel but fall short of what is their only remaining mountain to climb.

Kelly knows that, after all, he spent five seasons on the sidelines in Eugene and even remained at the school for a final season despite an offer to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coach in 2012, citing “unfinished business.”

Well, he never finished that business and four head coaches later the Ducks are still hunting their “white whale.”

Kelly, however, slayed that giant — kind of — when Ohio State defeated Notre Dame this past Monday night, putting the now offensive coordinator on the winning sideline of a culminating game opposed to the losing ones he’s been on in Philly, Frisco, Westwood and of course Eugene as the head coach.

Prior to last week I’d have congratulated the man, but since he made things personal with all-things-Oregon last Saturday, he’ll have to look elsewhere for the credit he clearly sought when he went low on the Duck coaches and fans just two days before a game they had nothing to do with.

Kelly quit his job at UCLA. He wasn’t fired, his contract hadn’t expired, and he didn’t have a more appealing option either at a more prestigious university or in the NFL, he simply chose to leave for a job less becoming.

Some called it “courageous,” others “bold,” but I think I’d use antonymous words to describe what was clearly little more than running from a challenge he wasn’t up for.

His bubble burst in the NFL, he was little more than mediocre at UCLA and, as a result, he chose to run to a winner instead of building one on his own. Now, in the wake of the Buckeyes’ success, he’s standing on third base and acting as if he hit a triple.

Kelly did a lot for the University of Oregon football program, but the school and program did a lot for him as well.

Mike Bellotti took a chance on him, hiring him from FCS New Hampshire.

The athletic department took a bigger one when they made him head coach despite just a year of coaching at the Division-I level.

And the fans did and continued to embrace him even after he left for “greener pastures.”

But when push came to shove, the man and former Oregon coaching messiah turned his back on that coach and athletic department that gave him that opportunity, along with the fans that appreciated him during and after his time on their sidelines. That was his decision, and now it’s mine to turn my back on him.

Will you do the same?