Chip Kelly, the new offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes, isn’t shy about sharing.
Kelly was questioned on Saturday about how much he would alter from the previous Buckeyes football philosophies. Kelly retorted that his goal is to create the greatest offensive he can by making use of every member of Ohio State’s staff, including head coach Ryan Day.
“It’s got to be a total collaborative effort,” Kelly said. “It’s not my offense, it’s not Ryan’s offense, it’s not (wide receivers coach Brian Hartline)’s offense, it’s not (offensive line coach Justin Frye)’s offense. It’s Ohio State’s offense. Put all those minds together and hopefully, we’ll come up with a pretty good game plan.”
Kelly has already had conversations with a majority of the offensive staff, including Hartline, running backs coach Tony Alford and tight ends coach Keenan Bailey. They all will have a part to plan in constructing the offensive identity of the Buckeyes.
“Everybody has great thoughts and processes of how they do things,” Kelly said. “Just spending time so far, I have offensively with Brian Hartline, with Tony and Keenan Bailey, the rest of the guys on the offensive staff. There’s a lot of really, really smart people in that room, and that’s an advantage for us.”
Kelly was hired as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator following Bill O’Brien’s departure, who had held the position for just a few weeks before he accepted the head coaching job at Boston College. Prior to joining the Buckeyes, Kelly was head coach at UCLA, where he guided the Bruins to the Pac-12 Conference record for rushing yards per game the previous two seasons (237.2 yards in 2022 and 197.9 yards in 2023).
It remains to be seen what Kelly’s football-running philosophy will accomplish with Ohio State’s gifted rushers, Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson.