Riley should heed Chip Kelly saga
Lincoln Riley went from relative obscurity to offensive coordinator at a powerhouse and soon enough was head coach, building an offensive reputation the likes of which college football never had seen.
Riley's story is a sequel. The original will be standing across the grass from Riley in the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
UCLA coach Chip Kelly was the vanguard of offensive tempo. What Mike Leach was at the turn of the century and Riley is today, Kelly was a decade ago. His hurryup, no-huddle Oregon offenses were all the rage, and Kelly held exalted status in the gridiron pantheon.
It's a cautionary tale. These days, Kelly is just one of a trio of beleaguered coaches who are labeled disasters in just their second year on the job. Florida State's Willie Taggart. Tennessee's Jeremy Pruitt. UCLA's Kelly.
Kelly's Bruins are 3-11 overall, including 0-2 this season, with losses to Cincinnati and San Diego State. And now the Sooners are headed to Pasadena.
Kelly's reputation as an offensive wizard has been revoked. The Bruins have committed six turnovers and averaged 239.5 total yards and 14 points per game. Only 36,951 attended the UCLA-San Diego State game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. And all associated with UCLA are wondering if Kelly is worth the fiveyear, $23.3-million contract he was given; that's the going rate in big-time college football, but that's hard-to-swallow money in the Pac-12.
“You are always what your record says you are, so we're 0-2,” the stoic Kelly said after losing to San Diego State, which had been 0-21-1 all-time vs. the Bruins. “We are not doing a good enough job right now.
“It does not matter who we lost to. It doesn't matter if we had lost to them before or had lost to them now. It hurts when you lose. It hurts when you lose to Cincinnati, and it hurts when you lose to San Diego State.”
Hard to imagine this kind of indignity ever happening to Riley. But seven years ago, it was difficult to imagine this kind of indignity happening to Kelly.
Oregon coach Mike Bellotti had plucked Kelly away from his job as New Hampshire offensive coordinator in 2007, and for two years the Ducks' offense was transformed into one of the nation's best. Then Bellotti retired, and Kelly was promoted to head coach.
It's the exact script as Riley, hired away from East Carolina by Bob Stoops in 2015. The OU offense became a juggernaut, and two years later Riley succeeded the retired Stoops.
And Kelly was just as successful as Riley has been. In Kelly's four seasons as head coach, the Ducks went 46-7 and three times finished in the top four of the Associated Press poll. Oregon appeared to be an unstoppable locomotive.
Then Kelly caught the siren song of the NFL, went to the Eagles and got fired despite going 26-21 in three years, took the 49ers job and was fired after a 2-14 season, sat out a season and landed at UCLA.
Did Kelly pick the wrong job? Has offensive football passed him by? Was he arrogant, believing UCLA was a turnkey operation?
Nobody knows. But the precious few who still care about UCLA football are vastly unimpressed.
“I see what they see,” Kelly said of the Bruin fan base. “We made too many mistakes to win a football game today, and we certainly understand that.”
It's a fast fall for the prequel Lincoln Riley. Riley would be well-served to consider the Kelly saga.
Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:405:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.