Chip Kelly Reveals New Dynamic of Ohio State Offense

New Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly says he will not be the sole controller of the Buckeyes' offense, intending to rely on Ryan Day, Brian Hartline and others.

New Ohio State Buckeyes offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is not afraid of sharing.

On Saturday, Kelly was asked how much he would change from the previous styles of Buckeyes football. Kelly replied he intends to utilize every member of Ohio State's staff (including head coach Ryan Day) to build the best offense possible. 

"It's got to be a total collaborative effort," Kelly said. "It's not my offense, it's not Ryan's offense, it's not (wide receivers coach Brian Hartline)'s offense, it's not (offensive line coach Justin Frye)'s offense. It's Ohio State's offense. Put all those minds together and hopefully, we'll come up with a pretty good game plan."

Kelly has already had conversations with a majority of the offensive staff, including Hartline, running backs coach Tony Alford and tight ends coach Keenan Bailey. They all will have a part to plan in constructing the offensive identity of the Buckeyes.

"Everybody has great thoughts and processes of how they do things," Kelly said. "Just spending time so far, I have offensively with Brian Hartline, with Tony and Keenan Bailey, the rest of the guys on the offensive staff. There's a lot of really, really smart people in that room, and that's an advantage for us."

Kelly was hired as Ohio State's offensive coordinator following Bill O'Brien's departure, who had held the position for just a few weeks before he accepted the head coaching job at Boston College. 

As head coach at UCLA (his previous role before joining the Buckeyes), Kelly led the Bruins to the most rushing yards per game in the Pac-12 Conference in each of the past two seasons (237.2 yards in 2022 and 197.9 yards in 2023). 

Only time will tell what Kelly's mind for running the football will do with Ohio State's talented rushers like TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins.