Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly Leaving Buckeyes To Call Plays For Las Vegas Raiders
Ohio State has lost another key member of its 2024-25 national championship-winning coaching staff.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Pete Thamel, Ohio State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly is leaving Columbus after just one season with the Buckeyes to take on the same position with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. Kelly, who was entering the second of a three-year deal with Ohio State, will now owe the program a $350,000 buyout.
Kelly becomes the third assistant coach to leave Ryan Day’s staff this week and the second to head to the NFL. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left to assume the same role at Penn State last Sunday and offensive line coach Justin Frye departed to become the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive line coach on Saturday.
Kelly leaves for the NFL after a highly successful one-year stint with Day and the Buckeyes. After being hired to replace Bill O’Brien last winter, he helped return Ohio State’s offense into its explosive and dynamic form, ranking 14th in the nation in scoring offense at 35.7 points per game and 30th in total offense at 429.4 yards per contest, both of those numbers eclipsing the group’s 2023 marks of 30.5 points (44th) and 407.9 yards (47th).
Kelly was also key in allowing Day — whom he coached as a quarterback at New Hampshire — to take on a more “CEO” role with the Buckeyes and relinquish play-calling duties for the first time in his six years leading the program, a move that was instrumental in the Buckeyes’ chase for a national championship.
“I think the guys would agree, we wouldn’t have gotten that done without Chip,” Day said just hours after winning the national title on Jan. 20 over Notre Dame.
With Kelly now returning to the NFL — where he spent four seasons as a head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles (2013-15) and San Francisco 49ers (2016) — Ohio State will have to find a new face to call plays on offense in 2025, just like it will need to find a new defensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
The Buckeyes could hire in-house, with co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Brian Hartline being the obvious choice as he was previously promoted to offensive coordinator in 2023 before relinquishing that role once Kelly left.
Or, they could look in another direction and find a more veteran voice similar to Kelly to help lead a Buckeyes’ offense that will likely have several new faces with standouts such as Will Howard, TreVeyon Henderson, Quinshon Judkins, Emeka Egbuka, Gee Scott Jr., Donovan Jackson and Seth McLaughlin, among many others, all departing for the NFL.
Buckeye Sports Bulletin will have more on this breaking news story as news unfolds.