There were moments late Sunday night when Oregon fans reached a point lower than many had never experienced before.
Fewer than three weeks after claiming its first Rose Bowl victory in 95 years, it looked as though the Oregon football team was going to lose LaMichael James, Darron Thomas and Chip Kelly to the National Football League in just a 17-day period. @@http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/01/oregon_running_back_lamichael_2.html@@
Although James and Thomas are still headed to the next level, Kelly said he plans to return as head coach of the Oregon Ducks next season, the athletic department announced Monday morning. It was reported that Kelly, 48, was in serious discussions to fill the head coaching vacancy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3383&SPID=233&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205366826&DB_OEM_ID=500@@ @@http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/chip-kelly-ends-first-nfl-fling-now-105739650.html@@
Rumors circulated around the web throughout the day on Sunday, with numerous news outlets reporting that Kelly would indeed leave the Ducks in the next 48 hours. However, around midnight, Kelly drastically reversed course and decided the NFL will have to wait.
“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers asked for permission to engage in conversation with Coach Kelly, which was granted,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said in a press release Monday morning. “The University of Oregon is one of the nation’s preeminent college football programs and, as such, it comes as no surprise the NFL is interested in our personnel. We are pleased with Coach Kelly’s decision to remain as our head coach. Coach Kelly has provided great leadership and remains committed to building on our position among the elite college football programs in the country.”
The move to the NFL is likely inevitable for Kelly, who some believe is intrigued by the challenge of coaching in the NFL without having to deal with the NCAA. But those few hours where it looked as though Kelly was surely gone definitely made an impact on the recruiting trail with less than two weeks remaining before national signing day.
In addition to cancelling his Sacramento-based recruiting trip over the weekend, a few prominent recruits took Oregon out of their top choices with Kelly out of the picture. Prep defensive end Jeremy Castro de-committed from Oregon to sign with the UCLA Bruins. Meanwhile, the state of Oregon’s biggest prospect, Aloha junior running back Thomas Tyner, openly questioned his commitment to the Ducks on Twitter before saying he would be a Duck regardless of who the coach may be. @@http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Jeremy-Castro-120298;_ylt=ApXhUyzhfsezZ3h0.A.2zOdIPZB4@@ @@https://twitter.com/#!/thomas_tyner@@
At this point everything else is essentially awash. Sure, it was reported that Oregon had a short list of head coaching prospects if Kelly left — Boise State’s Chris Petersen and TCU’s Gary Patterson came up immediately — but in a press conference at the Casanova Center on Monday, Mullens said he had no such list made up.
“I didn’t have to get to a short list,” Mullens said. “Obviously, I’ve had the good fortune to work in this business and observe a lot of things, but if the time came that we had to put a list together, I think that we would have one ready to go in a quick period of time. But I don’t have one in my back pocket.”
For now, Kelly will continue to improve on his 34-6 record in three years as Oregon’s head coach, and will save the Buccaneers the $3.5 million they would have owed the school in buyout money, per the six-year, $20.5 million contract extension he signed three years ago. @@http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2012/01/chip_kelly_to_leave_oregon_for.html@@
“I am flattered by the interest of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ organization,” Kelly said in the release. “I enjoyed meeting with the Glazer family and General Manager Mark Dominik but after numerous discussions, I concluded that I have some unfinished business to complete at the University of Oregon.”
Indeed, Mullens said Monday that Kelly’s commitment to Oregon can not be underestimated.
“He’s invested heavily in the success here,” Mullens said. “And I think he’s got a strong relationship with the student-athletes, with the coaches and with the other staff. And I think he’s committed and, as he said, he has unfinished business. One thing about Chip is he’s very genuine. So when he says he has unfinished business, I think at the end he probably weighed it all out and that’s exactly what it was.”