Chip Kelly engineered one of the top offenses in college football in 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. He is leaving for the offensive coordinator job with the Las Vegas Raiders. Head Coach Ryan Day knew the high-profile OC could depart, and he has moved around much during his career. Now, Ohio State needs to hire offensive and defensive coordinators for 2025, in addition to an offensive line coach. This is normal after winning a national championship, but do you think Ohio State has now lost too much talent to repeat as national champions in 2025?
Chip Kelly’s Deal With the Raiders
There are complex deals involved here. First, The Monday Morning Quarterback’s Albert Breer, reported Kelly’s contract with the Las Vegas Raiders is worth an average of $6 million. As part of the complexity Kelly, who made $2 million at Ohio State in 2024 will owe Ohio State a $350,000 buyout for leaving Ohio State to become an NFL assistant coach with the Raiders.
Chip Kelly, the Nomad
It was expected that Kelly would leave. Day expected the OC might jump ship, and so did all the fans. This move is par for the course for Kelly, who has moved around in his career. He was a defensive and special teams coach at Columbia. Then, in 1992, he moved to New Hampshire as the running backs coach.
Kelly briefly served as the defensive coordinator at Johns Hopkins University in 1993 before returning to New Hampshire. From 1994-2006, he was New Hampshire’s running backs coach, then offensive line coach, and finally, for seven years, the offensive coordinator.
In 2007 and 2008, he was the offensive coordinator for the high-powered University of Oregon team. He moved into the head coach position from 2009-2012. This led to head coaching positions in the NFL. From 2013 until 2015, he was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2016, he was the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Finally, before becoming offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes, he was the head coach at UCLA for six seasons.
Kelly Did a Fantastic Job At Ohio State
With Kelly as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, Ohio State scored a whopping 35.7 points per game. It was an increase of more than five points per game from the season before. Transfer Quarterback Will Howard completed an Ohio State record 73% of his passes while leading the Buckeyes to a national championship. Howard was second in the nation in completion percentage, to the well-paid Shedeur Sanders at the University of Colorado. Howard improved dramatically in passing accuracy last season, no doubt because of Kelly’s coaching.
The Ohio State Offense
Under Chip Kelly the offense at Ohio State was excellent last season. It helped to have a duo at tailback who both had 1,000 yards rushing, an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver, and excellent tight ends to target. Kelly did have to contend with injuries on the offensive line, but they played well even, though they were all juggled, in the College Football Playoff.
Conclusion
Ohio State was expected to suffer some defections following their national championship win. However, Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles left to take the same job at Penn State, Justin Frye left to be the offensive line coach with the Arizona Cardinals, and Kelly departed to the Las Vegas Raiders. Coupled with all of the graduations at Ohio State, it is now reasonable to wonder if Ohio State has lost too much to repeat as national champion. Anything is possible though in the College Football Playoff era.
