According to multiple reports coming in late Sunday night, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has turned down offers to coach in the NFL in order to return to Eugene and remain the leader of the his high-octane Ducks offense.
Kelly met with the Cleveland Browns for 7 hours on Friday, and planned to meet with the Bills and Eagles before meeting with the Browns again Saturday night. Late Saturday night, though, the Browns owner and CEO both left Arizona - where Kelly was being courted by NFL squads after his team's Thursday night 35-17 Fiesta Bowl victory over Kansas State - without having met with Kelly again.
Apparently, Kelly decided that the Browns were not a good fit, and he made the decision to not meet with them a second time, as had originally been planned.
He reportedly met with the Bills Friday evening, but the conversation didn't result in any sort of action by either party.
Kelly then met with the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that many football fans hoped he would end up coaching, as the Eagles have deep pockets and a seemingly talented roster, despite its rocky 2012 season. Instead, without an offensive coordinator option in place to help Kelly implement his offense, and without much security at the quarterback position, the Eagles were unable to land Oregon's visor-wearing hero.
As ESPN reported: "Kelly was intrigued with the Philadelphia Eagles' head coaching job but decided he wasn't comfortable leaving the college game."
Because of that, multiple reports Sunday evening claimed that Kelly has indeed turned down the NFL for the second consecutive year and will, again, return as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks.
If the reports hold up, Kelly will enter his fifth season as the team's head coach, the only head coaching position he's ever held. In four seasons, he's lost only 7 games en route to leading the Ducks to three Pac-10/12 championships, four BCS bowl games, a BCS national championship appearance, and victories in the 2012 Rose Bowl and the 2013 Fiesta Bowl.
Kelly has five years remaining on his current contract with the University of Oregon.
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