Chip Kelly

After the hiring of Dan Quinn as their next head coach, the Washington Commanders are reportedly eyeing a former NFL head coach to be his offensive coordinator.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, UCLA head coach Chip Kelly is a candidate for Washington's offensive coordinator opening. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that Kelly interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders "at least twice" before they hired Kliff Kingsbury as their next OC on Thursday.

Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported on Jan. 20 that Kelly was "mentioned as a possible offensive coordinator by multiple head coaching candidates this cycle." Landing with a defensive-minded head coach like Quinn could be an ideal pairing for him if Washington chooses to hire him.

Kelly has coached at UCLA since 2018, though the team has struggled to find consistency during his tenure. After finishing with an 8-5 record in 2023, Kelly's record with the Bruins is 35-34. It's a far cry from his success as head coach of Oregon from 2009 to 2012 when he led the team to a 46-7 record over that span.

Kelly's performance with the Ducks earned him his first NFL head coaching job in 2013 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He coached the team to an NFC East title in his first season, but he was fired before the final regular-season game of his third season. He landed with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 but was fired after coaching the team to a 2-14 record.

Washington is hoping to find the right staff under Quinn that will help the team bounce back from a 4-13 finish to the 2023 season. With the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft, the Commanders will have their shot at one of the top quarterback prospects in this year's class, so it's imperative to have the right offensive coaches in place to help develop that player into a franchise QB.

Chip Kelly might be eyeing a return to the NFL.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted some people from around the league have speculated that the UCLA head coach could be targeting the Las Vegas Raiders' offensive coordinator opening.

"With Antonio Pierce taking over as head coach, the Raiders will need a good offensive coach," Florio wrote. "It's not known, however, whether Pierce would be interested in adding Kelly to his staff."

While Kelly has a high-profile job with UCLA, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported earlier this month that he was "mentioned as a possible offensive coordinator by multiple head coaching candidates this cycle."

The coach who is known for his fast-paced offense that mixes in run-pass option looks has found more success at the college level than in the NFL to this point.

He went 46-7 in four years with Oregon that included an appearance in the BCS national championship game and two Rose Bowls. He then parlayed that into a head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013 but was fired in his third season with a 26-21 record.

Kelly then went 2-14 as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

He has been at UCLA since 2018 and hasn't replicated some of the success he enjoyed with the Ducks. The Bruins are 35-34 during his tenure and could face even more difficulty in the immediate future with a pending move to the Big Ten and 2024 games against LSU, Oregon, Penn State, Washington and USC.

Offense has rarely been the issue for Kelly, so an offensive coordinator role would make sense were he to return to the NFL.

There is an opening with the Raiders, but the potential connection seems to be largely speculative at this point.

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly could make a return to the NFL in a coordinator capacity this offseason, according to CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones.

Jones reported Sunday the 60-year-old "has been mentioned as a possible offensive coordinator by multiple head-coaching candidates this cycle." Some prospective suitors have begun the process of vetting him.

The Bruins finished 8-5 in 2023 and capped off the year with a victory over Boise State in the LA Bowl.

Kelly has yet to deliver a 10-win season in his six years at UCLA and life is unlikely to get any easier for the program as it leaves the Pac-12 behind for the Big Ten. The coach could plausibly be on the hot seat depending on how 2024 unfolds.

But there isn't anything to indicate Kelly is in immediate danger of losing his job at such a relatively late stage of the college football coaching carousel. Leaving for the NFL would also mean taking a lesser title and presumably less money — he's earning nearly $6 million a year at UCLA.

Having said that, Kelly has been outspoken about his dissatisfaction with the general direction of college athletics. In December, he advocated for schools to become independent in football along with the creation of a 64-team conference made up of Power Five programs.

In addition, recruiting has never been Kelly's forte, and now that's an even larger part of his duties thanks to the advent of NIL rules and the transfer portal.

It wouldn't be that shocking if Kelly ultimately preferred to take a position with fewer demands. If he harbors any aspirations of working as a head coach in the NFL again, being a coordinator is probably the only realistic path to that as well.

Kelly has a 28-35 record over four years in the pros, and he lasted just one season with the San Francisco 49ers after going 2-14 in 2016.

There's probably nothing he can do at UCLA or any other school to address the concerns that led to his NFL exile because his personality rather than his coaching was one thing that largely did him in.

If Kelly were to thrive as a coordinator, then he will have potentially shown he's more suited to coaching an NFL team this time around.

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly reiterated his belief that college football should be isolated from other college sports, especially after the newest round of conference realignment.

Kelly said Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show "the realignment thing blows my mind" because of the logistical challenges for non-revenue sports. He posited that college football should be "separate" from the traditional model with its own structure:

Kelly initially outlined the idea during a media conference last week. He called for Power Five and Group of Five conferences that each have 64 teams where schools maintain some of their historic rivalries while cycling through opponents on the other side of the country.

Once the dust settled on the last realignment cycle, the more romantic of college football fans pointed to the continued shift away from the regional nature of the sport. The quirky traditions and geographic allegiances are what have set it apart through generations.

Even those with less of an emotional attachment almost immediately questioned the sustainability of college sports writ large when conferences now stretch from coast to coast.

The issue is less acute with football since there's enough revenue to offer players appropriate travel accommodations. Only playing one game a week eases the burden on athletes as well.

Those luxuries aren't afforded to every sport, though.

During both his press conference and on The Pat McAfee Show, Kelly referenced the UCLA softball team. The Bruins have road series against Washington, Oregon State, Stanford and Arizona State in Pac-12 play for the upcoming season. Those will be substituted out for Big Ten opponents either in the Midwest or on the East Coast.

Or consider the UCLA women's volleyball team, which played on the road for weekends at a time. Going from Arizona to Arizona State or from California to Stanford at least mitigated the travel hassle somewhat. That's not going to be the case in a conference as spread out as the Big Ten.

Assuming college football eventually embarks on some sort of super-conference era with the SEC and Big Ten (or comparable entities) reigning supreme, breaking it off from other college sports will be the most sensible path forward.

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly is an accelerationist when it comes to realignment in college football.

"I think we should all be independent in football," Kelly told reporters Friday. "You can have a 64-team conference that's in the Power 5 and you can have a 64-team conference in the Group of 5, and we separate it and we play each other."

His wider argument is that football should be separated from other college sports entirely. He alluded to the impending difficulties that will come with UCLA playing fellow Big Ten schools in non-revenue sports.

Kelly probably isn't alone in that thought at this point.

The most recent round of realignment has dramatically altered the landscape in college football and increasingly concentrated power in two conferences (Big Ten and SEC). College sports have undergone numerous changes across generations, but now they're entering uncharted territory to some degree.

With Florida State openly agitating for an exit from the ACC, it may not be long before the next wave of realignment arrives, too, one that could lead the ACC to go the way of the Pac-12. The Pac-12 went from being on the verge of building one of the biggest conferences in the country to dissolving within 12 years.

Even leaving that aside, the stratification in college football has only grown over the last decade or so to create another case for adopting something like Kelly proposed. Parity has never been a feature of the sport, but schools, particularly those in the Group of Five, are getting left behind because they simply don't have the resources to keep up.

If college football is going to cease largely being a regional enterprise, then pivoting toward a more pro-style structure with everybody playing under the same banner is arguably the most sensible approach.

There haven't been many college football coaches that have had a toastier seat than UCLA's Chip Kelly.

Kelly has had a mostly unimpressive tenure at the helm of the Bruins' program and is in the middle of another mediocre campaign. He is—however—coming off the biggest win of the season against rival USC on Saturday in an impressive 38-20 effort.

But if this is Kelly's final rodeo at the Rose Bowl, NBC's Peter King doesn't really know what the next stop would be for the former following this uninspiring run.

"If this is Chip Kelly's last season at UCLA, I wonder what team, college or pro, would want him now," King wrote Monday. "Kelly turns 60 this week. His record at UCLA in six seasons is 34-33, even after Saturday's impressive win over USC, and when you can't win at UCLA, after not winning at San Francisco in 2016 and getting fired after three seasons without a playoff win at Philadelphia, the Oregon magic is gone

"I thought the guy had genius qualities when I covered him a few times in Philly, but boy was I wrong. His people skills aren't good. In his 10 coaching seasons post-Oregon, Kelly is 62-68. That's not a season or two. It's a decade."

Kelly is far removed from his days as the coach at Oregon where he managed to lead the Ducks to three-consecutive PAC 12 titles while running one of the most electric offenses in college football.

Following all that success, Kelly moved on to the pro ranks as the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles where he enjoyed a moderate amount of winning but made some moves that alienated the fan base and was ultimately fired during his third season in 2015 after going 6-9.

Kelly was subsequently hired by the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 but had the worst year of his coaching career, going 2-14 and not making it to a second season.

But Kelly's reputation as an elite college coach hasn't faded and it helped him land the UCLA gig back in 2018. He has amassed a 34-33 record since taking over the Bruins.

Realistically, it probably wouldn't take long for another college program to swoop in and land Kelly should he be fired by UCLA. It may not be a power five program but the glow of those four season in Eugene will follow Kelly around for the rest of his career.

Despite rumors of his impending firing, Chip Kelly isn't concerned about his future as UCLA's head coach.

Following the Bruins' 38-20 win against Caleb Williams and USC, Kelly spoke to reporters about the rumors.

"Not an issue for me," he said, according to Justin Rudolph of On3.com. "I've never been governed by the fear of what other people say, and the lessons that this game has taught me is that there's gonna be highs and there's gonna be lows. And you gotta lean into the lows, embrace them, and then you just gotta go to work."

Kelly also revealed that he spoke with executive senior associate athletic director Josh Rebholz, who relayed a message from athletic director Martin Jarmond that denied the validity of the rumor.

"Josh [Rebholz] came over the other day and said, 'Hey, there's a report about this, and Martin [Jarmond] told me it was inaccurate, inappropriate," he said, per Rudolph. "I don't pay attention to that stuff, I don't read that stuff, I never see that stuff."

It didn't appear to affect Kelly's team, either. The Bruins' 38 points scored was the team's third-highest total of the season, ending a two-game losing streak.

Starting quarterback Ethan Garbers threw for 155 yards and a season-high three touchdowns, recording zero interceptions. Running back T.J. Harden crossed the century mark for the first time all season, racking up 142 yards on his 22 carries.

"You can see by the performance today it didn't bother the team," Kelly said, according to Rudolph. "I never talked to the team about it, never talked to our coaches about it. We're just fortunate. We're all blessed that we get to play this sport. And every day that we get to coach it, I'm the happiest man in the world."

UCLA moved to 7-4 after the win, as the Bruins are bowl-eligible for the third time in six years under the former NFL head coach.

Chip Kelly's time with the UCLA Bruins will reportedly soon come to an end.

It's "very realistic" that UCLA will fire Kelly following a matchup against the USC Trojans on Saturday, according to Tracy Pierson of 247Sports. However, his firing "could be delayed until after the Cal game" if the Bruins win Saturday's matchup, Pierson added.

Pierson added:

From what I've learned, a significant factor to dimiss Kelly was the perceived lack of a viable path forward as UCLA heads into the Big Ten in 2024. Kelly has little support from donors, especially in terms of NIL donations, which has now become the life blood of any college football program and its recruiting. In fact, from what I know, many UCLA donors have chosen not to donate to UCLA's football NIL fund as long as Kelly is the UCLA head coach.

Kelly has been head coach of the Bruins since 2018, posting a 33-33 record over his six seasons at the helm. And while UCLA is 6-4 entering this Saturday's game against USC, there's little hope for the team to overcome Caleb Williams and the Trojans.

Kelly's squad has only secured a bowl game once, which came during the 2022 campaign when it lost the Sun Bowl to Pittsburgh, and they have never truly competed for the Pac-12 title.

UCLA's 2023 football schedule is believed to be one of the easiest in recent program history, but the Bruins have posted unacceptable back-to-back losses to Arizona and Arizona State, furthering the indication that a new head coach is needed.

With the Bruins slated for a move to a much more difficult Big Ten in 2024, it's no surprise the program may be looking for a new voice as it enters a new era.

That said, UCLA's potential opening could be much more attractive to candidates given their change of conference.