It has been the worst-kept secret in football. Chip Kelly wanted out of Westwood. He had been interviewing for every NFL offensive coordinator job that has come up in the past weeks and everyone knew his days at UCLA were numbered. Going to Ohio State, however, is not what anyone would have expected a few weeks ago.
Nobody predicted how this would all play out. Bill O’Brien was hired as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State on January 18, but he took the vacant Boston College coaching position Friday morning and the college football coaching dominoes began to fall again. Within an hour, rumors of Kelly stepping down at UCLA to take O’Brien’s place began to surface. Later that afternoon it was confirmed that Kelly was out at UCLA and on his way to Columbus. It is a huge blow to UCLA’s athletic director, Martin Jarmond, and a proud Bruin athletic department as they enter the Big Ten for their inaugural season.
It was an inevitable end that had played out with a surprise conclusion. Here is how social media reacted to the news: