There was a reason I was hoping that Florida would hire him last year.
Most people thought he was the "big catch", but I think people were looking back at his days at Oregon and not realizing that he can't replicate that. Oregon was the perfect storm. Bellotti built that program up for nearly a decade and a half. It had Nike resources. And Chip Kelly walked into the perfect situation where he could use an innovative offense with great talent (built up by Bellotti) and college defenses wouldn't be prepared for it. He parlayed that into 4 big seasons at Oregon.
But at this point, defenses in college and the NFL are accustomed to and prepared for Kelly's HUNH offenses. In fact, at the NFL level, defenses had so thoroughly figured out Kelly's offense, that they were calling out the plays before they were run. It's a gimmick offense that worked for a few years when defenses didn't know how to respond to it, but the good DCs know the formula to crack it at this point.
The problem with Kelly, then, is that he doesn't have many attributes of a great Head Coach other than his offensive scheme. He's awful with people. He has a bit of toxic personality. He's not a good recruiter. He's not a good manager. The only thing he has is a good offensive mind and it remains to be seen whether he can re-innovate the offense again or if it was a one-time thing.
He would've been a trainwreck in Gainesville. He'll at least get more time at UCLA, but with the way he's recruiting, even if he's the most brilliant offensive coach in the world, he's still going to have a very difficult time winning the Pac-12.
