Gators are competing with Bruins for Kelly
GAINESVILLE — The Chip Kelly sweepstakes took a dramatic twist Tuesday.
It now appears to be a two-horse race between UF and UCLA, said a source close to the hiring process.
The L.A. Times reported Kelly met with a contingent of athletics officials from UCLA as the Bruins look to replace Jim Mora Jr.
The meeting comes two days after UF flew to meet Kelly in his native New Hampshire. Officials returned Sunday night without a deal in place to make him the Gators’ next head coach. No formal offer was presented, according to another source on the condition of anonymity.
ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach posted on Twitter Tuesday that Kelly’s decision is expected “in coming days.”
Kelly’s meeting with UCLA raised the specter the Bruins could be a better fit for the 53-year-old than the Gators.
Kelly coached Oregon to three Pac-12 Conference titles and was 46-7 overall during four seasons. Kelly is more familiar with the West Coast recruiting landscape. He also is known to value his privacy and might prefer coaching in Los Angeles, where he would not be the center of attention as he would be in Gainesville.
UCLA could check other boxes for Kelly that UF does not.
UCLA might not have UF’s tradition or SEC profile, but facilities and resources would not be an issue. The Bruins signed a record $280-million contract with Under Armour in 2016.
Mega-booster and UCLA alum Casey Wasserman, a prominent entertainment executive, donated heavily to the school’s new $75-million football practice facility that bears his name. He also is on the school’s coaching search committee.
The 43-year-old could act in a similar role for Kelly as Nike co-founder Phil Knight did at Oregon, which has state-of-the-art facilities considered among the best in the nation.
UF has won three national titles during the past 21 years, plays in a superior conference with all of its games televised in favorable time slots and is located in a fertile recruiting ground. But lagging facilities could be an issue for the next coach, as they were with Jim McElwain, who harped publicly on their inadequacy.
“It’s a top-10 program in America, and if they upgrade the facilities, it could even be top seven,” ESPN analyst Booger McFarland told the Orlando Sentinel. “From a recruiting standpoint it’s all you could ever ask for. [But] until you upgrade your facilities, other schools are always going to use that against Florida.
“Now with that being said, if you do get a bigname coach — and I do say if because I don’t know if it’s going to happen — like a Chip Kelly he probably can overcome those facilities. It’s going to be up to Scott Stricklin to solve that now.”
Seemingly well positioned Sunday to land Kelly, the Gators’ grip on the situation could be slipping.
The school did not intend to complete, or even present, a contract to Kelly. The six-person contingent including Stricklin, school president Kent Fuchs and associate athletic director Lynda Tealer, known as the department’s contract specialist, that met with Kelly was merely the next step in the process to replace McElwain, who was let go Oct. 29 after just 34 games at UF.
Even so, Kelly clearly has been the Gators’ top target.
“There will probably be some more productive conversations in the days ahead,” Stricklin told reporters following his from the 1,200-mile expedition from Ocala to Portsmouth, N.H.
Some people, however, reported Sunday that Kelly and UF had reached an agreement, or at the very least were on the cusp of one.
A source said if Kelly and UF are unable to reach a deal, the Gators are prepared to pursue other candidates once the regular season wraps up this weekend.