Nick Piccone
Damn it, I love the drama surrounding the Eagles this year. And by love, I mean hate. There’s constant coachspeak, constant badgering from reporters, and constant reporting that Chip Kelly’s looking to go back to college is not the way we, as fans, envisioned the season going at all. It sucks, but, hey, it wasn’t exactly unpredictable, either.
A report earlier today said that USC officials and Kelly met this past weekend. It would’ve made sense, with a little holiday break before getting prepared for the Patriots this coming weekend. At his press conference earlier today, Kelly denied the report and said he wasn’t even in Philadelphia Friday, when the report states the meeting “likely happened.”
He wasn’t in Philadelphia on Friday because…
Funny.
Transcription and audio via Crossing Broad:
“No, I’ve never spoken to anybody from USC, never emailed anybody from USC, never got a phone call from anybody at USC, never had any contact with Southern California … I’m not involved in any college jobs. I’ve said it before, the same thing happened a year ago with Florida. I have great respect for those schools, I think USC just hired a coach who is a heck of a coach. Clay’s gonna do a great job there but I haven’t been involved in any jobs, I haven’t discussed anything with any colleges.
…
I wasn’t in Philly on Friday, so that’s wrong. I haven’t met with them, I haven’t talked to them, I haven’t had a conversation with anybody from USC, so.”
…
I know and I’m answering the question: It hasn’t at all. No matter what’s written or what’s been said I’ve been totally committed since the day I got here on January 16th in 2013, and that hasn’t changed. I’m here … I’ve never been looking at college jobs. But again, I can’t control what’s written. I was never looking at the Florida job last year and I said the same thing … I never talked to anybody from Florida. I can’t control what’s written, I guess there’s no rules. You guys, people can write or tweet or say whatever they want, but I’ve never discussed another college job since I came here … And I’ve said that one hundred times I don’t know how many more times I have to say it … I don’t have to say that to my players every single time. I’ve never been involved in any other job since I came here … this is where I wanna be, so.”
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An ESPN report also states USC and Kelly were never in contact.
A source told McMurphy that USC never talked with Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly, but school officials did have discussions with a representative of FSU coach Jimbo Fisher and former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano — along with other current NFL coaches and assistants.
I mean, the moment it was confirmed that Kelly would become the new head coach of the Eagles, college rumors started. They’re probably never going to end until [unless] Chip wins a Super Bowl. He remembers the date he became head coach of the Eagles, so that’s good, I guess. For as much as we like to ignore whatever professional sports coaches say publicly because it’s always predictable, this may be the final say Chip has on going back to college. It feels like it’s not happening any time soon.