Greg McElroy is among those individuals left stunned by Chip Kelly’s decision to leave a Power 5 (soon to be Power 4) head coaching job to become a coordinator.

In fact, McElroy labeled Kelly’s departure from UCLA to be Ohio State’s offensive coordinator “the story that kind of shook up the college football world.” Instead of leading the Bruins into the new-look Big Ten, Kelly will now engineer Ryan Day’s offense after Bill O’Brien’s decision to take the Boston College head coaching job.

“It’s a sign of the times, it was reflective of how challenging it is to be a head coach. It is also reflective of how dominant Ohio State has become and how great of an offseason they’ve had in the last month and a half,” said McElroy. “To see a sitting, Power 5 head coach soon to be in the Big Ten. To see Chip Kelly leave UCLA as a head coach to become a coordinator in the exact same conference was mind-blowing for a lot of people, and it was for me too.”

While Kelly will not have to deal with the stress of being a head coach, he will face the added pressure of leading a Buckeye offense for a team with some of the best national championship odds entering the 12-team Playoff.

“We’ve seen (head coaches leave for assistant jobs) at other places… but I’ve never seen it so far where a guy is leaving a Power 5 head coaching job to be a coordinator elsewhere,” McElroy explained. “I think it’s a reflection of how hard it is to maintain the quality of a program over the course of time.”

With Kelly now in Columbus, the Bruins have handed the reins to DeShaun Foster to lead UCLA into the Big Ten. We’ll see how it works out for both parties entering a new landscape of college football during the 2024 season.