On the Chip Kelly/Texas Report


ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported this morning that Chip Kelly is prominent on Texas’ list of potential head coaches.

Via CBSSports.com:

“League sources say Chip Kelly is prominent on the new list of new Longhorns AD Steve Patterson, who’s heard that Kelly misses some aspects of the college football game,” Mortensen said. “If Kelly is interested, an NCAA expert believes that the 18-month show cause for sanctions at Oregon was more like a slap on the wrist and was not a major hurdle.”

Per Mortensen, Kelly would not comment on the report, but a team spokesman said he “laughed it off.”

With Kelly and the Eagles in first place in his first season, it seems highly unlikely that he would be interested.

Kelly has also made multiple comments this year indicating that he prefers the NFL lifestyle over the recruiting-focused lifestyle of a college coach.

“My schedule, the day the season was over, was a lot worse than my schedule here because you’re planes, trains and automobiles recruiting from Sunday night until Friday afternoon and hustling back and practicing, getting a practice in Friday afternoon, practice Saturday, practice Sunday, get back on a plane and fly around the country chasing down recruits,” he said last month.

“Maybe a misconception is when you’re a college coach and the last game is done and then the bowl game comes, you don’t have a month off. I would argue my schedule was more hectic from a recruiting standpoint than it was here. So I’m looking forward to being in the office every day and watching tape. That is the fun part of our job.”

The truth is there are going to be a lot of rumors connecting a lot of different coaches to the Texas job. Jim Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin have been mentioned as well. But for now, the ESPN report mentioning Kelly seems like much ado about nothing.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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