When Chip Kelly was hired as offensive coordinator for the Oregon football team last offseason, he came into a program armed with a deep and talented offense. His job was to find ways to spread the ball around it.
Now, with four of the offense’s marquee players done for the season, he’s looking for anybody who wants to step up.
“For us, it’s two situations. You feel bad for the kids that are out, but it’s an opportunity for the kids that haven’t played yet to show what they’ve got,” said Kelly. Then, in keeping with his dry sense of humor, “Maybe in two games Brady (Leaf) can win the Heisman.”
Coach Mike Bellotti agreed with Kelly, seeing the injury problems as an opportunity for the rest of the team to shine.
“The story of this (season) can be Dennis Dixon, and the Heisman and all that, and it can be that it ended,” said Bellotti. “Or it could be the greatest story ever told about going to the Rose Bowl despite that.”

Fans and columnists around the state have begun to murmur about a perceived lack of preparation by the coaching staff in getting backup Brady Leaf, and the team as a whole, ready to play the game sans quarterback Dennis Dixon in the event he couldn’t finish.
The usually affable Kelly bristled Monday at mention of the criticism of the coaching staff’s preparation of the team, then quickly returned to his more humorous demeanor.
“If you were at the game, he sprained his ankle,” said Kelly. “I can do a lot of things coaching-wise, but I can’t be a faith healer. We could have had Mr. Miyagi come out from ‘The Karate Kid’ and slap his hands together but that was about the only remedy for the situation.”
Because coaches knew the true extent of their starting quarterback’s injury, should they have had a better, or at least different, game plan for life after Dixon?
Kelly said that the reduced playbook in the second half came as a result of the ankle injury suffered by replacement Brady Leaf on the first drive of the second half, not because Leaf needed adjustments in the offense to be successful.
“We got handcuffed a little bit when he went down,” said Kelly. “He actually did a nice job of driving us down right at the end of the first half to get us a field goal out of the deal but then when he went down…that kind of limited us a little bit.”
Kelly said that the offense won’t have to change to score points, and that, because of the injury, the second half of the Arizona game wasn’t an accurate portrayal of Leaf’s skills. Bellotti backed up Kelly’s assertion that Leaf can run the spread-option offense effectively.
“The reality is the offense is the offense,” said Bellotti. “He does a very good job and he can handle this offense.”
Amateur and professional football prognosticators alike have weighed in with their ideas on better offensive alignments for an offense run by Leaf, but according to Kelly such measures are not only unnecessary, but unrealistic.
“There’s not much you can do, you only have about two days of practice so it’s not like we’ll have any wholesale changes and come out in the wishbone,” he said. “I hear everybody say ‘Why don’t you get in an “I” formation?’ but until we recruit a fullback it’s a little tough to get in an “I” formation.
“We take what we have player-wise and try to manipulate them and try to put them in positions where they have a chance to be successful,” he said.
The relationship between Kelly and Dixon this year has been well-publicized as a solid one, and Dixon refers to Kelly in almost every interview he does as a big reason for his success this year. Kelly said that while he and Dixon have a good relationship, that doesn’t mean he has neglected the backup quarterback in his coaching duties.
“We’re all in the same meetings, it’s not I like I just talk to Dennis and I don’t talk to Brady,” said Kelly. “We’re all on the same page and I have all the confidence in the world in Brady.”
Part of that confidence comes from the quality of Leaf’s play last season and in his limited role this season. Having Dixon around to help out in a coaching role will also help Leaf as he is re-introduced in a starting role.
“He’s been awesome,” said Kelly of Dixon. “If you watched him in the second half of the game I was as proud of how he responded to the injury as anything else.
“He can’t play, because of the injury, but he’s still very much a part of this football team. He just went to coach Dixon now instead of Dennis Dixon.”
Kelly has said on several occasions this season that injuries are just a part of football and most, if not all, college football teams have to deal with injuries at some point. Kelly also said he refuses to complain about the rash of injuries with which this team has been stricken.
“Don’t feel bad for us,” said Kelly. “Everybody in this situation is crying about injuries and we’re not going to cry.”
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