Ohio State coach turned down Chip Kelly’s offer to come west
Under different circumstances, Ryan Day might be wearing yellow and green and coaching Oregon Saturday in Ohio Stadium.
It's not unreasonable, perhaps it's even probable that if Day had decided to join Chip Kelly's staff at Oregon nearly 12 years ago, he would be coaching the
Ducks today.
“We talked several times about going there … Thought long and hard about doing it, but it was just too far to go at the time,” Day said during his weekly news conference in which he previewed the game against Oregon. “It was hard for me at the time. We had just had
R.J., and Nina was pregnant with Grace. With a young family, I didn't want to go all the way across the country. And Chip was great. He said, ‘That's why I love you, because you love your family so much.' ” Consider the possibilities if young children had not been involved. First, the facts. Kelly was promoted from Oregon's offensive coordinator to head coach in 2009 when Mike Bellotti resigned to become the school's athletic director. Kelly needed a new offensive coordinator and also a receivers coach. Day, two years into coaching wide receivers at Boston College, held discussions with Kelly, who coached him for one season (1998) at New Hampshire.
Educated speculation: It would have been hard for Day to turn down the man he considers his closest mentor.
“We talked (Monday). We talk all the time. He's very, very close to me,” Day said of Kelly, whose path led from New Hampshire to Oregon to the Philadelphia Eagles to the San Francisco 49ers before landing back in college at UCLA. “His summer home is right across the street from mine. His wife and my wife are very, very close. We share thoughts and ideas about everything, not just football. He's meant a lot more to me than anybody else in terms of my career.”
Now the fun begins. If Day tells Kelly “yes,” then who knows? Instead of hiring Mark Helfrich from Colorado to help run the offense and Scott Frost — yes, that Scott Frost — from Northern Iowa to coach the receivers, Kelly fills one of the openings with Day.
If Kelly hires Day as OC, then Day likely becomes head coach when Kelly leaves Eugene for Philadelphia, in which case it coulda/woulda been Day against Meyer in the 2014 College Football Playoff national championship game.
If Kelly hires Helfrich as OC and Day to coach the Ducks receivers, Day elevates to offensive coordinator under Helfrich when Kelly leaves and uses the job as a stepping stone to a head coaching position elsewhere, as Frost did at Central Florida.
Or maybe Day remains at Oregon and gets promoted to head coach when the Ducks fire Helfrich after the 2016 season.
Oh, the juicy possibilities when playing connect-the-career-dots.
Let's continue.
Day worked as a graduate assistant under Urban Meyer at Florida in 2005, but if the former New Hampshire quarterback
already was a head coach or coordinator in 2016, he never joins Meyer's staff at Ohio State in 2017.
It didn't happen that way, of course. Day remained at Boston College through 2011 before spending one season at Temple running the Owls' offense, then returned to BC for two years as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
But eventually he joined Kelly and ended up on the West Coast after all. In the last of his three seasons with the Eagles before getting fired, Kelly hired Day as his quarterbacks coach in 2015, then hired him again in 2016 when he became San Francisco's head coach.
“Lo and behold (seven) years later we're out in San Francisco together, on the other side of the country working together,” Day said, smiling.
Kelly and his staff lasted only one season with the 49ers, which is why Day was out of work and available when Meyer chose to replace offensive coordinator
Ed Warinner and quarterbacks coach Tim Beck with Kevin Wilson and Day in 2017.
Tracking Kelly's career path, Buckeye Nation might wince when considering what comes next for his protege. Day continues to insist he is not looking to jump to the NFL, and my sense is he will stay put for at least another three years. Will he eventually opt to scratch the itch to become an NFL head coach, as Kelly did? What if Bill Belichick retires and the Patriots turn their attention to Day, a native New Englander?
Or maybe during their frequent conversations Kelly has warned Day that the NFL is not the plum assignment some think. Or maybe Meyer tells Day the same thing after this season?
One thing is certain: Ohio State fans are glad it worked out the way it did, with Mario Cristobal standing on the visitors' sideline Saturday in the Shoe. Not the coach who is 24-2 with the Buckeyes.