Dan Lanning looks ahead to facing Chip Kelly’s Ohio State offense

Ohio State offensive coordinator and play-caller Chip Kelly has returned to Autzen Stadium before. When he was coaching UCLA, he made the trip back to Eugene three times, albeit once with no fans during the 2020, COVID-19-affected season.

Kelly’s Bruins lost each of those matchups, however, the imprint he left out there from his six-year tenure with the Ducks — the final four years of which he spent as head coach — is still clear.

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“Yeah, I remember the teams that he had here,” current Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said Monday. “I think everybody respects him as a football coach and certainly the things that he was able to accomplish while he was here.”

Kelly won 10 or more games each of his four seasons as the Ducks’ head coach. His second year running the show, Cam Newton’s Auburn was the only thing standing in the way of an Oregon BCS national championship. He led the Ducks to a trio of Pac-12 championships, and he did so while showing his schematic wizardry.

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A pioneer of the ever-changing spread offense, Kelly burst onto the scene nationally with his adoption of the zone-read option at Oregon, which he infused with an up-tempo offensive philosophy during his innovative chapter Ducks. This high-octane approach was built around speedy running backs, receivers and quarterbacks who could outrun defenses (think running backs LaMichael James , Kenjon Barner and De’Anthony Thomas and quarterbacks Jeremiah Masoli , Darron Thomas and Marcus Mariota ). But the zone-read was also used to set up the play-action pass that sliced defenses vertically.

Even when opponents thought they had all their gaps covered against those Oregon teams, at times bringing an extra defender down to the box, Kelly coupled inside zone concepts with the zone-read triple option. In that case, for instance, just as the quarterback can read the EDGE on a typical zone-read option, he could also read the backside linebacker and decide to either pitch to one back or handoff inside to the other.

Since, Kelly has coached the Philadelphia Eagles (2013-15), San Francisco 49ers (2016) and UCLA (2018-13). Now, he’s reunited with Ryan Day, coordinating the Ohio State offense. Day, of course, played quarterback for University of New Hampshire while Kelly was OC there before Day went on to coach under Kelly at UNH and for the Eagles and 49ers.

Kelly’s offenses have evolved over the years. He moved away from the mile-a-minute, no-huddle approach, leaned into heavy packages at UCLA and now has added his own touch to Day’s system at Ohio State, where the quarterback run has re-emerged, and athleticism on the offensive line is an increased emphasis.

“I think he’s always done a great job of utilizing his personnel, moving guys around and allowing them to do things that they do really, really well,” Lanning said of Kelly. “He always finds unique ways to run the ball. I think that’s one thing that he probably doesn’t get enough credit for is his ability to run the ball, regardless of situation.

“When he was at UCLA last year, they were the No. 1 rushing team in our conference for a lot of reasons, and it’s because of his ability to run the ball. But he does a great job utilizing personnel, keeping you on your toes, changing the tempos, creating unique formations that you’ve never seen on film before. So you always have to prepare for something you haven’t really prepared for.”

Kelly’s creativity in dressing up his run game is one thing, but the players he has at his disposal in Columbus is another — the duo of running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson has fueled the No. 15 rushing offense in the country. Both are averaging at least 7.8 yards per carry.

They will be a handful for Oregon on Saturday, and so will Kelly.

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