Kelly’s departure from the Buckeyes was announced as Ryan Day was in the middle of an interview with Joel Klatt of Fox Sports.
Just weeks after winning a national championship, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is faced with the difficult task of replacing both his offensive and defensive coordinators from the 2024 season.
On Sunday, news broke revealing Buckeyes’ OC Chip Kelly had been hired as the next offensive coordinator of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. In an ironic coincidence, Day was in the middle of recording an interview with Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt for his podcast, The Joel Klatt Show, when that news broke.
Klatt used that opportunity to get Day’s immediate reaction to the news that he was losing his offensive coordinator to Pete Carroll and the Raiders.
“That was great. It was great [to win a national championship with Kelly],” Day told Klatt. “We talked about it, the fact that, you know, we had a really good group here and, you know, the dream would be to win a national championship. And then, you know, he decides whether he wants to stay or have an opportunity to go to the NFL, and that’s exactly what happened.”
“Just to be able to have a beer in a few years and talk about the year that we had together is gonna be special, because we all started together and this is where I started with him. And we went and did that and what a great story. I know so many people back home in New Hampshire are just excited for him and for the story. It’s pretty special.”
While Kelly was well-paid in Columbus, making better than $2 million in his lone season at Ohio State, he’ll be getting a significant raise in Las Vegas. According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Kelly is set to make an average of $6 million per year with the Raiders, making him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL.
