Latest Updates on Chip Kelly's Status at UCLA, Potential Oregon Return
Within the next couple of days, the Bruins' future on the gridiron will be decided.
UCLA football coach Chip Kelly spent most of the year on the hot seat, but a 3-0 November and ensuing Holiday Bowl bid led many to believe he was safe. But just because he isn't in line to get fired doesn't mean he is a lock to return to Westwood next season, apparently.
247Sports' Bruin Report Online reported Friday morning that UCLA had officially offered Kelly an extension, as was expected following his 8-4 record in 2021 and emphatic blowout win over crosstown rival USC. The reported extension is between three and four years and has a new buyout structure that goes down year-by-year as Kelly's annual salary goes up.
Kelly is currently set to enter the final year of the five-year contract he signed with the Bruins back in November 2017, and that final year starts Jan. 15, 2022. After that date, Kelly's current $9 million buyout drops to zero. Standard practice of the college football coaching carousel meant Kelly was never going to coach in 2022 with his contract set to expire right after, so that date was always going to stand as a deadline of sorts to extend or fire him.
But according to the latest from Bruin Report Online, the two sides have reached an impasse as a third party, Oregon, has entered the picture.
Kelly has been tied to the Oregon job since before Mario Cristobal even left to take the top job at Miami (FL) on Monday. Once Cristobal's exit became official, Kelly was named the odds-on favorite to replace him in Eugene.
Several reports surfaced Thursday that Oregon had asked UCLA for permission to interview Kelly, with Bruin Report Online later confirming that Kelly did in fact have that interview and that Oregon actually intended to hire him. It is unknown whether the Ducks made Kelly an official offer to return to Oregon, where he went 46-7 from 2009 to 2012 before leaving for the NFL.
But even amid all the rumors and backdoor dealings, it seemed for a moment like Kelly was going to stay in Westwood after all. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Friday that Oregon had hired Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning to be their next head coach, putting the Kelly murmurs to bed.
Those reports were almost immediately refuted by several national and West Coast reporters, though, who all said that sources within Oregon's program told them Lanning was a candidate but had not received an offer or been hired as of Friday afternoon.
While Lanning is still possibly in the running for the Oregon job, another one of their top targets – who reportedly interviewed as recently as Thursday – is off the market.
BYU gave coach Kalani Sitake an extension through the end of the 2027 season, which was first reported early Friday afternoon and officially announced by the school not long after.
Sitake being off the table for Oregon – and off the table for UCLA, should they have an opening – means the list of true candidates has been shortened even further. Cal coach Justin Wilcox has been tied to the job as well, with Oregon reportedly interviewing him Thursday too, according to the Oregonian's John Canzano.
Based on various reports from across the country, Kelly leaving the Bruins in favor of the Ducks still seems to be a possibility – the chances of it happening are unknown, though. In Bruin Report Online's most recent update, publisher Tracy Pierson wrote that his sources don't expect UCLA to budge on their extension terms or match any offer Oregon makes to Kelly, should the Ducks ultimately decide to make him one.
Kelly has gone 18-25 in four years with the Bruins, leading them to their first bowl this December after three straight losing seasons to kick off his tenure.
As of Friday, Kelly was still out on the recruiting trail for UCLA. After visiting defensive lineman Anthony Lucas in Arizona on Wednesday and eventually earning a top-five finalist spot from the SI99 All-American candidate, Kelly returned to Southern California to talk to running back commit Tomarion Harden at Inglewood High School on Friday.
Cristobal was conducting recruiting visits up until the day before he left for the Hurricanes, though, and the same happened with new USC coach Lincoln Riley before he left Oklahoma in November.
Jared Mack of 247Sports' Duck Territory found the Nike private jet on a flight tracker Thursday and watched it as it flew from Oregon down to Palm Springs, California. Kelly being in Arizona to visit Lucas on Wednesday and Los Angeles to visit Harden on Friday could pin him in the right place at the right time to have met up with Nike founder and Oregon booster Phil Knight, with whom he is still close with, on Thursday.
All signs point towards the Kelly-Oregon-UCLA fiasco getting resolved in the next three days, but there are still plenty of dominoes to fall before that point.
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