When the Buckeyes defeated the Ducks at the Rose Bowl Game, Chip Kelly got his first-ever win over Oregon as a coach. He was never able to accomplish the feat as the UCLA Bruins' head coach and fell short in the teams' regular season matchup. However, when Oregon and Ohio State clashed in the College Football Playoffs, Kelly got his win over the Ducks as the Buckeyes' offensive coordinator.
Ahead of Ohio State's appearance in the National Championship game, Kelly spoke with members of the media and made sure to get a few digs in towards Oregon and head coach Dan Lanning.
"It was a unique message with our players, you can’t stop us with 11," Kelly said. "You had to stop us with 12. You saw the final results of 11 versus 11...”
Kelly's dig was in reference to Lanning's brilliant move to put too many players onto the field, allowing time to run off before the penalty was called, and subsequently preventing the Buckeyes from finding the end zone at the end of their regular season game.
NEW: Chip Kelly fired a direct shot at Oregon ahead of the National Championship:
— On3 (@On3sports) January 18, 2025
“It was a unique message with our players, you can’t stop us with 11. You had to stop us with 12. You saw the final results of 11 versus 11...”https://t.co/bdQJO0amnD pic.twitter.com/ydsxpHuP0f
In that game, the Ducks walked away with the victory because Ohio State quarterback Will Howard slid to the ground as time expired. Without the chance for the trickery, Oregon fell well short of a second win over Ohio State.
While Kelly isn't the reason that the Buckeyes defeated the Ducks in the Rose Bowl matchup, he made sure to take advantage of his first-ever win over his former program.
Kelly was the Oregon head coach from 2009 until 2012, after serving as the Ducks offensive coordinator for two seasons. He left the Ducks for a head coaching opportunity with the Philadelphia Eagles and then the San Francisco 49ers.
When his time in the NFL failed to amount to any great success, Kelly took the head coaching gig at UCLA where he stayed until he became Ohio State's OC ahead of the 2024 season.
Kelly and the Buckeyes, led by head coach Ryan Day, are scheduled to kick off against Notre Dame and head coach Marcus Freeman on Monday, Jan. 20 at 4:30 p.m. PT.