Chip Kelly sends interesting message on Dan Lanning’s job at Oregon

Chip Kelly once agreed with Arkansas’s Sam Pittman that an FBS head coach’s job is to “set the practice schedule and beg people for money.” But as he tells CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd , he doesn’t believe that applies to Dan Lanning’s job at Oregon.

"It depends on your school," Kelly told Dodd when asked about it ahead of Ohio State’s Week 7 clash with Oregon in Eugene. "I would imagine Dan Lanning is not begging people for money."

Kelly doesn’t know the ins and outs of Lanning’s job from a firsthand perspective. While Kelly was Oregon’s head coach from 2009 to 2012, that was in a different era. It may as well have been a different sport altogether.

Kelly acknowledged that in his conversation with Dodd.

"There was massive change in a short amount of time in adjusting to the portal and NIL," Kelly said. "I think you could literally transfer at halftime if you felt like it."

Kelly does likely still know people at the University of Oregon, though. He shared a conference with the Ducks in the Pac-12 for five years when he was UCLA’s head coach. Kelly likely has more intel on Lanning’s job than most.

So believe him when he says that Nike’s NIL money and Oregon’s super-rich donors are making life easier for Lanning than it is for most college football coaches across the country.

Dan Lanning cannot let Ohio State become Oregon’s new immovable object

Lanning’s time at Oregon thus far has been defined by winning the large majority of games in impressive fashion but being stopped dead in their tracks by a legitimate contender. Georgia ended their College Football Playoff hopes in Week 1 back in 2022, while Washington handed them the two losses that kept them out of the mix in 2023.

Ohio State has the potential to be that team this season. While the expanded CFP field takes some pressure off this game, there’s a chance Oregon will have to face the Buckeyes again in the Big Ten Championship like they had to with the Huskies last year.

Ryan Day has had these same kinds of problems with Michigan the last few years, so both coaches will be battling against the idea that an immovable object always stands in their way.