[Chip Kelly won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year honor this week. The whole season is his masterpiece. But if you could narrow it down to just one drive, or one or two plays, we could easily point to what everyone is still talking about -- the final drive of the Civil War.
The following is a story from a few days ago in the Oregonian.
UO football: Chip Kelly knows the pause button as well as fast forward
By John Hunt, The Oregonian
December 04, 2009, 5:38PM
EUGENE - In keeping with his customary routine of celebrating victory, Oregon coach Chip Kelly reported to the football office Friday morning and began studying some video of Ohio State, the Ducks' opponent in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Then he took a break to join The Dan Patrick Show on the radio, and Patrick asked Kelly about the pace of his offense, how Kelly seemed to want to floor the accelerator at one point in Oregon's dramatic 37-33 Civil War win over Oregon State on Thursday night.
"Here's what we want to do,'' Kelly said. "We want to play as fast as I talk. We weren't playing as fast as I was talking at that point in time.''
But there was a more important point in the game when Kelly put his foot on the brake - the final 6 minutes and 9 seconds, when the Ducks kept the ball away from OSU's Sean Canfield and the Rodgers brothers.
That 6:09 is an eternity in the Kelly era of offense. In fact, the Ducks haven't had a scoring drive that long in more than two years. (On Oct. 13, 2007, they salted away a 53-7 win over Washington State by keeping the ball 8 minutes and 43 seconds.)
Two fourth-down conversions helped the Ducks keep the ball and keep OSU off the field.
The first came on 4th-and-3 from OSU's 33-yard-line with 3:29 left and Oregon leading 37-33. A 50-yard field goal is a bit out of Morgan Flint's range, and Kelly has consistently gone for it on fourth down between the 30s, so this was no surprise. It was entertaining, certainly, when quarterback Jeremiah Masoli bowled over safety Lance Mitchell to pick up the first down, but not surprising.
But when Kelly went for it on OSU's 19-yard line on 4th-and-2 with 1:43 left, it raised some eyebrows. Why not kick the field goal and get a nice 7-point lead?
"It would have still kept it a one-possession game - it just gives them a chance to tie it,'' Kelly said. "If someone tells me our season is going to come down to a 4th-and-1 and I have Jeremiah Masoli, who I believe is the best quarterback - for our offense - in the country, would I put the ball in his hands? I wouldn't hesitate, and I'd do it again.
"We had moved the ball on that drive and felt pretty comfortable with what we had.''
The situation - the potential for being second-guessed - wasn't too unlike what New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick faced a few weeks ago when he went for it on 4th-and-2 with two minutes left against Indianapolis, although the field position was different. The Patriots failed, barely, and the Colts came back to win.
"Jeremiah Masoli and Tom Brady are a little bit different,'' Kelly said. "I don't think Tom Brady's running over free safeties.''
Some Oregon State fans are second-guessing Mike Riley's decision to go for it on 4th-and-15 from Oregon's 27-yard-line on the previous possession (Canfield just missed James Rodgers on the sidelines and the Ducks got the ball back with 6:09 to go). A 44-yard field goal would have brought OSU to within 37-36.
But it's hard to second-guess either coach. Oregon State is now 9 of 12 (75 percent, tied for third in the nation) on fourth-down conversions this season; Oregon is 13 of 20 (65 percent, 20th in the nation) after converting all three chances Thursday night.
[Ball possession was like oxygen in that game. Riley knew it. In OSU's final drive, keeping the ball was first priority. Scoring was second. And this might have played into Kelly's thinking on the subsequent drive. For Riley, kicking the field goal to trail by one and giving the ball back to Oregon merely increased the chances that OSU loses that game.
For Kelly at the 1:43 mark, kicking a field goal to go up by a TD and giving the ball back to OSU does not guarantee a victory as much as keeping the ball and suffocating the clock.
The traditional coach's mantra is to "Put points on the board." Both went away from conventional wisdom in that fourth quarter. And as Kelly points out, with Masoli running the show, it worked for Oregon.
Give Kelly the C.O.Y. award. Second place goes to Riley. ]
Oregonian Sports Editors think they're funny.
[On page D3 of Tuesday's Oregonian this week, you will see the story about Chip Kelly winning the C.O.Y.
There's the big headline reading:
UO's Kelly wins coach of the year,
along with a large pic of him.
Next to that article, and I mean RIGHT NEXT TO that article on the right is another story with the headline.
Kelly confirms interest in the Notre Dame job.
Relax. It's Cincinnatti's Brian Kelly who thinks Notre Dame would be a good career move for him. But for those who peruse the paper by scanning headlines -- and if you had to put a number on those people, I think it would fall in the percentile range of . . . . hmmmmm . . . ALL OF US!! -- it was a bit of a heart stopper. And I'm telling you, I think it's too clever to be a coincidence.
Message to the Oregonian Assistant Sports Editor in charge of layout:
You think you're pretty funny, don't you? Got a little chuckle over the idea of Duck fans crapping in their pants all across the tri-county area, didn't you?
Who are you? An Angry Beaver? Dirty Dawg? Cougar with a cruel streak? A Trojan Jackass?
Shall we call the hospitals and see how many green and yellow clad chest clutchers came busting into the emergency rooms that day?]
Lo' How a Rose e're Blooming
(For you Coug fans and other unsophisticates, that's a fancy Christmas song sung by a robed choir in a dark auditorium where you have to sit still for two hours.)
[Just in time for Christmas: Oregon Rose Bowl stuff and shirts and sweats and sweatshirts and keychains and ornaments and banners and pins and stuff. I'm seeing much of the same merchandise at the mall, Fred Meyers, Macys or of course the Oregon Duck Shop <-- (Click your way to savings NOW!)
Remember, it's not a Rose Bowl Duck thing unless it has a rose on it. Some of the stuff I've seen looks like they took merchandise off the rack, inked up their red rosy rubber stamp and went to town. Here are a just a few of the items available.
I like both of these headwear -- Informative, yet understated.
Also available in long sleeve, the most abundant design.
Holy Moly. Is that the # for Masoli?
Several "Equal Time" selections showing both Oregon and Ohio State.
Classic DTO (Duck through O) design.
Say it with pants.
All of that on a black field would look better.
We'll have to keep our eyes open for the dumbest, weirdest, or otherwise most unique Rose Bowl souvenir items. If you see one, bring it to my attention and I'll post it.
Later, a look at the stars of Ohio State.] --kb
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