College Football

Nebraska Football: No, Chip Kelly Should Not Be Coaching the Huskers

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:04 a.m. ET

Fansided, Brandon Cavanaugh/FanSided via Husker Corner

For those of you not into the whole Twitter scene, I don’t blame you. Nebraska football Twitter is blowing up in the wake of the Music City Bowl and during the recruiting dead period. In fact, what with Chip Kelly getting fired from the 49ers, some are taking fantasy hiring to a new level.

Early January in Nebraska. You’d think that it’d be a rather boring time in a desolate place.

You’d be wrong.

With the San Francisco 49ers’ dismissal of Chip Kelly and his statement of “not ruling any job out“, an idea was floated. Not past me, but I couldn’t help but jump on it.

@CornNation Would U like 2 C Chip Kelly replace Riley Plan would B Kelly 4 few seasons then hand program 2 Frost who B coach in waiting

— North Star (@scomvp) January 4, 2017

Basically what “North Star” is proposing is moving a previous bunch of Oregon Ducks to Lincoln to supplant Mike Riley after two whole seasons of instilling a new culture and bringing in his own players. I found this funny.

This wasn’t going to stop my new chum’s desire for a Quack Attack reunion, though.

@eightlaces Its possible this could happen if AD stops love affair w/Riley

— North Star (@scomvp) January 4, 2017

Ah yes, the “love affair” that Shawn Eichorst has with Riley considering that once he fired Bo Pelini, Riley was the coach he had at the top of his wish list for a variety of reasons. It’s simple, you see. All Eichorst has to do is forget why he wanted to hire Riley in the first place and ol’ Chip could have Nebraska rolling in Big Ten hardware in no time.

@eightlaces I am very familiar w/the relationship Thats where board of trustees comes into play Thats how Osborne got 2 B AD

— North Star (@scomvp) January 4, 2017

Invoke the name of Tom Osborne and all will go well, right? Not so much. Just because Osborne took the athletic director gig didn’t exactly mean all would end well. For those Nebraska football historians in the crowd, you’ll remember that his choices for the Huskers’ head coach were Turner Gill (now the head football coach at FCS Liberty University with a 35–25 record) and eventual pick Pelini.

Not the best search, but for the Huskers out there with really good memories, this wasn’t the first time Osborne didn’t put much effort into a hunt as he passed off the program to current Ohio head coach Frank Solich in 1998. No offense to Osborne, but I’ve selected steaks with a more persnickety nature.

I don’t have to go over what happened with Pelini, because we’re all familiar with the Four Loss Song and Dance by now.

@eightlaces I thought name of the game is winning What if Kelly was hired as HC & first 2 seasons avg w’s R 10 Would that B bad then

— North Star (@scomvp) January 4, 2017

What if? A more important point: What if Nebraska did fire Riley, go to Kelly and he told Eichorst to pound sand? Since we’re dealing with hypotheticals, why not say that Kelly takes the job? I don’t doubt Eichorst can write an eight to ten million dollar check, so let’s go nuts.

Now Nebraska has hit the reboot button five times in the past 19 years. That means if you’re the head coach of the Cornhuskers, you get all of four years to produce or you hit the bricks. That’s right, you don’t even get a full recruiting cycle and you have to implement both your scheme and culture.

Kelly comes in and runs a spread option which, guess what? Nebraska doesn’t have the quarterbacks for. Tanner Lee, Patrick O’Brien and Tristan Gebbia give Kelly three pro-style quarterbacks that are nowhere near the same style of signal-caller as Jeremiah Masoli, Darron Thomas or Marcus Mariota. He also doesn’t have running backs like LaMichael James or LeGarrette Blount.

He’ll get that talent though, right? What’s the draw, alternate uniforms? Oh wait, everyone does that now. Yes, even Nebraska.

Recruiting is tough in general, especially among the Pac-12 out among the West Coast. When you’re in the middle of the country, it’s a whole new ballgame. Besides, tell me what the Ducks have in their facilities that wows recruits more than Nebraska’s. A barber shop?

Bottom line: Kelly’s in the NFL for a reason. I get that some Husker fans would love to have him in Lincoln, but it’s a horrible fit that would just make the program look desperate and set it back further. I also understand the desire to cram Scott Frost into that head coach’s polo oh so badly. However, one 6-7 record that comes complete with a bowl loss does not a program leader make.

Perhaps Frost will one day take over the reigns and heck, maybe Kelly does end up at Nebraska in a couple years time. For now, Riley’s here. He’s not leaving after next year barring a 5-7 season and even that’s a maybe.

In the meantime, I have a wild idea. Maybe, just maybe, all fans of the program could root for its head coach, and by proxy the program, to succeed.