Football: Chip Kelly’s role in orchestrating the Buckeyes’ new offense, from the booth to the field

For the first time in Ryan Day’s head coaching tenure at Ohio State, he was not the play-caller for the Buckeyes offense Saturday.

That duty now belongs to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.

Kelly — who hasn’t called plays in the booth since he was the offensive coordinator for Oregon in 2008 — said he encountered few issues in his first outing Saturday, but also noted that it’s important to streamline communication from the booth to the sidelines as the season progresses.

“We practiced it, so every time we’ve gone to the stadium, we’ve had an opportunity to do that to kind of get settled and familiar up there,” Kelly said. “It was good, it’s a different perspective. I think you can see the game better from up top and I think you can feel the game better from the field, and I don’t think that’ll ever change.”

Kelly’s offense looks slightly different from Day’s offenses in past years, mostly due to the Buckeyes’ offensive personnel this season, which features a more involved rushing attack.

Ohio State has arguably the best running back duo in the country in senior TreVeyon Henderson and sophomore Quinshon Judkins. Kelly’s plan is pretty straightforward: to give them each a larger workload.

“Carlos Locklyn, our running backs coach, [does a great job] of just keeping those guys fresh and who’s in and who’s out,” Kelly said. “There wasn’t a set plan, but hopefully we run the ball a little bit more and those numbers are up for both of those guys.”

The NCAA’s decision to allow helmet communication in FBS football — which gives coaching staff the ability to speak directly to one player on the field, typically being a quarterback — has caused major changes within the landscape of college football offenses, according to an April 19 article from ESPN.

Kelly said helmet communication with Buckeyes graduate starting quarterback Will Howard must be relayed efficiently and effectively.

“You’re making a decision on, ‘What are we now? We’re second and five on the left hash. What play are we going to call?’” Kelly said. “And we’re trying to get that information to Will [Howard] as soon as possible so he can digest it.”

Though it’s beneficial for play-calling, helmet communication has one major caveat: Quarterbacks can’t communicate back.

“It’s not a conversation because he can’t talk back, but we try to be as brief as possible so that he gets as much information as he can,” Kelly said.

Howard said he has practiced working through helmet communication since transferring to Ohio State in the spring, crafting solutions to possible faulty technology in the process.

“I think for it being the first game, I think we did pretty well with it,” Howard said. “I obviously can’t speak back to him, so he doesn’t know when I’ve heard it, or what I’ve heard, or if it cuts out or anything like that, but we’re working through those. We have hand signals, you know, if I throw my hands up, I can’t hear you.”

Kelly said he often gives Howard two or three plays in his ear to choose from and trusts the veteran quarterback to read the field.

“There could be a check within that call, so the play could have come in as one play, two plays or three plays,” Kelly said. “Then Will [Howard] has to make a decision at the line of scrimmage — what’s the best play for us and get us into that right play.”

The addition of Kelly has also allowed Day to become more active in other aspects of coaching, particularly working with special teams, as the head coach expressed previously.

“With special teams, just being more involved with it, making sure the right guys are in there, what the calls are,” Day said. “Then being there on defense to just encourage the guys and be around them. I did enjoy that part of it.”