After The Dust Settles, Chip Kelly Is Still The Coach Of The Oregon Ducks. But How Long Will He Stay in Eugene?

So last night was pretty fun, right?  It was pretty crazy, that's for sure.  For a while there, I was certain that ol' Chippie was gone.  Done deal.  Signed, sealed and delivered.  Right?  Well, no.  Crisis adverted.  Duck fans could stop freaking out, like you know they were.

Like only Charles Kelly can, he ball-faked the sh!t out of all of us, and left us looking foolish like every poor defensive end that has played against Oregon.

But when I woke up this morning, and heard that Charles Kelly had decided to stay at Oregon, I wasn't surprised in the least.  I saw the news scrolling across the bottom line as I was watching SportsCenter this morning and all I could say was "Nice one, Chip.  Nice one."

I say that because you know that as soon as they heard that Kelly was leaving, no less than 17 Duck fans either had heart attacks or started looking for the nearest bridge.  People were freaking out folks.  If you're wondering how bad it got, go check out our friends at Addicted to Quack and all the comments (all 2,345 of them) from their 2 posts that said Kelly was leaving.

A couple days ago, I mentioned a comment on an article I saw where a Duck fan called "Leajones99" said that there's no way Chip Kelly would want to leave the football utopia that is Eugene, Oregon for a city like Indianapolis.  Now Leajones99 probably doesn't really believe that Chip Kelly will never leave for another job.  She probably echos the general consensus that Duck fans share in that they hope that Chip will never leave them.  When your favorite team hires a coach that brings you as much success at Kelly has brought to the Ducks, of course you're going to hope he spends the rest of his coaching days with your team.  There is nothing wrong with that, that is how fans are supposed to react.

But I think that last night's events made the possibility of Chip Kelly leaving Oregon one day a little more real for a whole lot of Oregon Duck fans.

As of today Chip Kelly is the head coach at the University of Oregon.  And he will be for this upcoming season, unless he changes his mind again just to eff with everyone's minds a little more.  But knowing what we now know about how close he got to hittin' the road out of town, how long do we really think he's going to stay?

That's the $64,000 dollar question.  And if you give me the options of either Chip Kelly or anybody else, and asked me who will be the coach at Oregon 3 years from today, I'm putting my money on "anybody else."  He's expressed before that he would like to coach in the NFL someday.  He's not getting any younger.  He almost took a job to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just last night, and the deal was serious enough for it to get leaked to the media.  For some unknown reason, though, he pulled out at the last minute.  (Something Nike related, I'm sure...)  I give it about two more offseasons and Kelly is gone.

And when that day comes, it's probably going to suck.  But it won't be the end of the world.  Oregon is now a high-profile enough job to attract the attention of practically any good, quality coach in the country.  They may have to change up the offense a little bit, but they'll be fine. 

I still believe that Chip Kelly's offensive philosophy doesn't really translate well to the NFL, and contrary to one idea that's been floated out there, I don't think that Kelly will be able to just switch up the offense that he's been running for close to a decade, at a moment's notice to conform to the NFL.  I just don't see it.  But what I do see is that it's almost a certainty that Kelly's ultimate goal is no secret any longer.  Even if the word is that his "heart is with college football and Oregon" still.

Duck fans should probably start preparing for the day that Chip Kelly leaves them.  Because it's coming.