How Did John Lennon Play A Factor In Chip Kelly Leaving UCLA For Ohio State OC? It Was All About Being Happy

It's been a month since Chip Kelly departed Los Angeles and decided to restart his clock when it comes to coaching. Certainly, the path to get to Ohio State has been filled with a few curveballs over the past few years, but for the first time in a while, Kelly seems happy. 

The coaching carousel of 2024 will go down in history as one of the wackiest times in college football history, instigated by the retirement of Alabama's Nick Saban. Who knows where we would've been when it comes to filling coaching vacancies if Saban hadn't departed Tuscaloosa for the golf course, and a job at ESPN. 

But in the first week of March, things look so much different than they did just a year ago, in a sport that's changing every single week. 

We all heard the rumblings from this past season, with Chip Kelly's job status at UCLA being discussed on a weekly loop, but at the end of the 2023 season, the Bruins decided they weren't moving in the direction of another coaching search. 

The Bruins athletic department was content to let Chip Kelly return in 2024 to lead the football program, but there was something still bothering Chip Kelly about his day-to-day life as a head coach. Putting aside the daily grind of being the leader of a prominent football program, Kelly had to decide if he wanted to continue his life as the CEO of a major program, or get back to his roots of just coaching ball. 

Turns out, it was the actual coaching life on a daily basis that he missed the most. 

"Sometimes I do a lot of things other people don’t do," Chip Kelly noted. "I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but I think it started when we were preparing for a bowl game. Ryan Gunderson is a great quarterbacks coach, left to go to Oregon State as the coordinator. So he wasn’t there. So I actually coached quarterbacks during the bowl game and I just started to think like I hadn’t actually coached a position since 2008.

"And I think my wife, she’s like, I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time. And to me, the best part of football is football. And so you got to do football, and not do some of the things that involve being the head coach."

COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 05: Ohio State Buckeyes Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly address member's of the media at Woody Hayes Athletic Center on March 05, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)

Even Kelly noted that life as a head coach has changed over the years, taking him away from the daily routine of coaching a player, or being more involved in one group, and not having to worry about delegating different jobs to assistant coaches. 

"Because I think as a head coach, you sit in position meetings, but then you’re always getting pulled out. And there’s other things that are involved with being a head coach, and I think it’s more of a CEO operation right now. You know, it’s the job in the landscape as we all know of college football has changed."

Why Did Chip Kelly Leave UCLA? John Lennon Certainly Helped

Chip Kelly made it clear that he never thought about quitting and getting out of the coaching business, he just needed a change. Getting away from the daily grind of leading an entire organization is a hot-button topic right now around the sport of college football. Some will just dismiss the notion that the daily grind is starting to catch-up with coaches around the country, while also affecting life outside the facility. 

For the former UCLA head coach, it was about just being happy with the way his life was headed in the current state. Referencing John Lennon, the Buckeyes offensive coordinator mentioned that it comes down to having a life where, at the end of the day, you can come home and say that you're happy to be doing this for a living. 

"I just thought at the time that you know, there’s a story about John Lennon when he was a little kid," Kelly said. "He had an assignment of what do you want to be when you grow up? And he said, I want to be happy. His teacher said, I don’t think you understand the assignment. And his mom said, I don’t think you understand life," Kelly continued. 

"So I just wanted to be happy, and I’m really happy coaching positions. Really happy to be at this place. You know, it would have taken a special place for me to leave UCLA because I love those players and I love that coaching staff but to be here with Ryan, who I have a great relationship. I’ve known Ryan since he was a little kid. So I think a lot of things just fell into place."

COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 05: Ohio State Buckeyes Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly during at Woody Hayes Athletic Center on March 05, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Mowry/Getty Images)

Dan Mullen Shares Opinion On Chip Kelly Wanting To Get Out Of CEO Role

If there is one guy who knows what it's like to run a powerful program in college football, it's Dan Mullen, who has been a head coach at two different schools in the SEC. When it comes to the balancing act of being a coach and not only a CEO, it can be difficult. 

So, in the case of Chip Kelly, the former Mississippi State head coach doesn't blame him for wanting to get back to the daily grind of just coaching ball. In an interview that will come out Wednesday evening, Dan Mullen had his own opinion of the road Chip Kelly took to Ohio State to become the offensive coordinator. 

"I think Chip Kelly is an unbelievable example of a guy, he just wants to coach ball, he wants to go be a football coach," Dan Mullen noted. "And a lot of what goes on right now as a head coach, you’re very much a CEO. As a coach, I loved coaching, but you were limited by how much time you got to go do that. 

"A guy like Chip Kelly, who I know well and have so much respect for Chip. An innovator of the game, with all the things you go back and look as one of the early spread guys and the tempo offenses, back at UNH and all the points he put up. He goes, ‘I want to coach at some point’, and you see guys make these moves. Chip’s done well for himself, made a whole bunch of money, and he's saying  ‘instead of making money, i’d be happier coaching on a daily basis’. . 

Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen during the college football game between the Florida Gators and South Florida Bulls on September 11, 2021 . (Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images).

Can you blame him? I would hope the answer is no, but that can't always be the case when folks are discussing coaches that are making millions of dollars per year. For Chip Kelly, none of the outside noise matters, as he works with four different quarterbacks and hopes to help Ryan Day fulfill the goal of winning a national title. 

Even though it might've thrown things for a loop in Westwood, on the campus of UCLA, it shouldn't. During almost the entire back-half of the season, there were people inside the building openly discussing the status of Chip Kelly moving into the future. Sure, they decided to keep him for another season. But what if the Bruins decided to fire the head coach just four games into the 2024 season? 

At the end of the day, Kelly did what was right for him, while seeing the writing on the wall at UCLA being erased for at least one more year, following the 2023 season. 

If the man is happy being an offensive coordinator at the college level, then just let it be.