Oregon fired its head football coach on Tuesday after a disastrous 4-8 season. The 1-10 San Francisco 49ers are in the middle of a disastrous season of their own. You see where this is going, right?
Naturally, the rumors that Chip Kelly could be interested in heading back to Oregon have begun flying around once again. And just like the last time he was asked about calling it quits on the NFL, Kelly shot down those rumors on Wednesday when a reporter asked if he is staying with the Niners.
“Yup,” he said emphatically, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “So we’re done with that, I hope.”
Of course, Chip knows better than to think he is actually done with that. In fact, he wasn’t even done with it at Wednesday’s press conference.
“The only person I’ve talked to [at Oregon] is [fired coach Mark Helfrich],” Kelly said when asked a follow-up question about the Ducks. “So, we can talk about the Bears.”
In response to a third question asking if there’s any chance he will be the next coach at Oregon, Kelly simply said “no.”
Kelly does not want to be considered a failure at the NFL level, but he will at least have to give the Oregon job consideration if the school wants him back. Nike co-founder and top Oregon booster Phil Knight is supposedly prepared to spend insane money on the program’s next head coach, and it would be unwise for Kelly to not even take a phone call given the circumstances.
Of course, Oregon may not want Kelly back. One of the candidates the school is reportedly interested in has a much different style from Kelly’s, so the Ducks may be looking to go in another direction. Whatever the case, we know this won’t be the last we hear of Chip heading back to Eugene.
