Even after a rough season, Chip Kelly might still prefer the NFL to college

The team that looked most likely to bring Chip Kelly back to college isn’t getting Chip Kelly, as USC announced the hiring of interim coach Clay Helton Monday. Despite a 4-7 start with a quickly collapsing defense, it seems unlikely Chip’s headed back to college at all.

The USC job looked like the best college fit for Kelly, who had a lot of success in the Pac-12 at Oregon. Trojans officials reportedly met with him (USC athletic director Pat Haden denied there was an interview) before deciding on Helton.

Kelly denied a conversation with USC took place, and vehemently denied any interest returning to college.

I’ve never spoken to anybody from USC, I’ve never emailed anybody from USC, I’ve never got a phone call from anybody at USC. I haven’t had any contact with anybody from Southern California. I’m not involved in any college jobs. I’ve said it before, the same thing happened last year with Florida. I have a lot of respect for all those schools ... but I haven’t been involved in any jobs and I haven’t discussed anything with any colleges.

The only reason Kelly’s name keeps coming up for college jobs is that college football wants him, but it’s reasonable to think that Kelly doesn’t want college football, despite his success at that level. He still has talent in Philadelphia, and even if he loses his job with the Eagles, he will likely have other NFL offers. He’s been linked to the Tennessee Titans job, where he could coach his former Oregon QB Marcus Mariota.

Kelly is on record saying that he doesn’t like the biggest aspect of college football: recruiting.

“My schedule, the day the season was over, was a lot worse than my schedule here because you’re planes, trains and automobiles recruiting from Sunday night until Friday afternoon and hustling back and practicing, getting a practice in Friday afternoon, practice Saturday, practice Sunday, get back on a plane and fly around the country chasing down recruits,” he said.

“Maybe a misconception is when you’re a college coach and the last game is done and then the bowl game comes, you don’t have a month off. I would argue my schedule was more hectic from a recruiting standpoint than it was here. So I’m looking forward to being in the office every day and watching tape. That is the fun part of our job.”

Kelly also reportedly didn’t get along well with boosters at Oregon, which would be a major part of the job with any college team, and particularly important at a big-time job like USC.

Perhaps Kelly will eventually wear out his welcome in the NFL, or he’ll miss dominating all of college football. But for now, it makes perfect sense to believe he still prefers the NFL to college.