On SportsCenter Sunday morning, Chip Kelly had some fun with the Florida coaching search. ESPN anchor Kevin Negandhi brought up the prospect of the Florida job with a graphic on screen behind Kelly.
Chip Kelly denies he was in Bristol last week, foiling Florida football internet detectives
Here’s the ESPN analyst joking about the Gators job on air.
Kelly joked that Negandhi was trying to subtly push him out the door. “Is this your way of firing me?“ he asked.
Then he cleared up the great mystery that was last week.
“I was in New Hampshire last week.” ... “I’m in Bristol on the weekends.”
On Tuesday, the internet ran wild with rumors that Florida AD Scott Stricklin was en route to Bristol, Connecticut to meet with Kelly.
Stricklin tweeted this selfie to confirm where he was during that afternoon.
Fans even identified a plane that was scheduled to travel from Gainesville to Windsor Locks, Connecticut on FlightAware.com. Windsor Locks is the location of the airport frequently used by people traveling to ESPN headquarters. Of course, it’s unclear if Kelly was even at ESPN’s campus on Tuesday. Until he shared his selfie, it was also unclear where Stricklin was this afternoon.
All this also cross references with reporting SB Nation did later on Tuesday evening while the flight tracking was at its peak. SB Nation called the hotel ESPN talent usually stays in down the street from the company’s Bristol campus. The hotel had no record of Kelly checking in as of that evening.
He also offered the normal platitudes about Florida being a great program and said that “whoever gets the job will be really lucky.”
It remains to be seen if “whoever” will end up being Kelly.
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