Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

These days it's no surprise when Oregon coach Chip Kelly lands one of the country's top recruits, but Kelly is familiar with the other end of the recruiting spectrum as well.

During his 14 years as an assistant coach at the University of New Hampshire, Kelly would bounce around the Northeast hoping to lure even marginal prospects to UNH's Durham campus.

"He was a tireless worker at it," UNH coach Sean McDonnell said. "When we were both working under Coach Bowes [former UNH coach Bill Bowes] we went to the Philadelphia area one weekend because we had five or six guys we wanted to check out. We sent Chip to Canada on Monday, back to central New York Tuesday during the day, back to Toronto on Tuesday night.

"It went on like that for three or four days - and there wasn't any flying going on. He was driving, getting three or four hours of sleep each night. At this level (FCS) you gotta do that."

McDonnell is one of 25 people who will attend Monday's BCS Championship game between Oregon and Auburn at Kelly's expense. He said Kelly always had a good eye for talent, but Kelly - and McDonnell - nearly passed on quarterback Ricky Santos, who won the Walter Payton Award following his junior season at UNH.

"Both of us used to decide on the quarterbacks we'd bring in, but we couldn't pull the trigger on Ricky," McDonnell explained. "We offered three or four other kids, but everybody we offered had good options. It reached a point where Ricky was the only quarterback left on our board. We weren't sure about his arm strength or if he was fast enough.

"We drove to his high school in Bellingham, Mass., to see him play basketball. I remember Chip and I looked at each other that night and he said, 'This is why you get paid the big bucks Mac.' We offered him - no one else offered - and he ended up being the most prolific player in UNH history.

"We almost missed on that one, but Chip was a guy who wouldn't leave anything unturned. He brought in some of the best players we've ever had here."