"I had other offers before. I felt like it was the right time. I felt like I had an adequate background as an assistant coach."

                               -- Oregon  head coach Chip Kelly

Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

Chip Kelly knows a good thing when he sees it, and he's seen plenty of University of Oregon football.

Although Kelly was elevated from Oregon's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach to the program's head coach on March 13, in many ways his job begins Monday, when the Ducks begin spring practice. Kelly's task? Don't screw things up.

"The team was very, very successful before I got here," Kelly said. "You have to put your stamp on the program, but I'm not going to make wholesale changes. I'm not designing new uniforms -- they're pretty good at that here. I'll tweak things. There will be changes, but they'll be subtle.

"We've won 19 games in the two years I've been here. The question now is: "How do we do it better?"

Kelly, 45, served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of New Hampshire for eight years before he accepted a job at Oregon before the 2007 season. Former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti named Kelly as his successor last December, and the change came when Bellotti decided he'd prefer to be the school's athletic director.

The process may have been accelerated by the fact that several schools -- Syracuse among them -- were interested in Kelly as a head coach..

"I wasn't shopping around," he explained. "I was contacted by a couple of schools. Like I did at UNH, I kept the head coach informed.

"There are a lot of positives to taking over a top-10 program. The schools that contacted me were letting their head coaches go. I had a little bit of an idea (he would be Oregon's next head coach), but I didn't know it would come as quickly as it happened."

Kelly's responsibilites will be shifted. As a head coach, he'll meet with the media more, and spend less time on the road recruiting. He said the recruiting trips are something he won't miss.

"The NCAA doesn't allow the head coach to be on the road as much (as an assistant)," Kelly said. "Spending so many nights sleeping in a hotels is not something I enjoy. What I do enjoy is coaching good players.

"I'll take an active role in the evaluation process, but the assistants will lay the groundwork. We have an unbelievable staff.

"Not every kid is the right kid for your school -- that's something I learned from (former UNH head coach) Bill Bowes and (current UNH head coach) Sean McDonnell. A lot of it is how the player develops once they're in the program. Sean is the best at that that I've seen."

Kelly, 45, was born in Dover, and grew up in Manchester. He was a quarterback at Manchester Central and played college football at UNH. He lived in Portsmouth while he was coaching at UNH.

"I still own property in Portsmouth," Kelly said. "I never sold my place. I still pay taxes, so (Portsmouth High School) is my hometown team. I called Murph (Portsmouth coach Bill Murphy) before last year's (Division III) championship game to wish him luck. The only job I would leave Oregon for is Murph's job, but I'm not sure he's ever going to leave."

Kelly said it's likely he will continue to call Oregon's offensive plays this season, although he still has an opening to fill on his staff. He said he has several candidates in mind, but none with ties to New Hampshire.

"I'll probably still call plays," he said. "I don't know what I'd do in practice and games if I didn't. I say probably because I still have to hire a coach, and he could be the world's best offensive coach. I'm not going to rush to my decision. I want to make sure I hire the right guy."

Undoubtedly, Oregon is hoping it hired the right guy as well.

"I had opportunities to be a head coach earlier in my career," Kelly said. "I feel like I'm ready, and we'll see."  

Oregon Records Under Kelly

• Rushing yards in a game: (465) at Washington, Oct. 20, 2007
• Total offense in a game: (694 yards) at Oregon State, Nov. 29, 2008
• Points in a Pac-10 game: (65) at Oregon State, Nov. 29, 2008
• Rushing yards in a season: (3,641) 2008 (old record: 3,272, 2007)
• Total offense in a season: (6,303) 2008 (old record: 6,078, 2007)
• Points in a season: (545) 2008 (old record: 496, 2007)
• First downs in a season: (321) 2007