i'm glad someone else saw this article, btw. i read it yesterday and while i might have been leaning his direction before, i'm sold now.
the thing that really caught me was this....
Since Kelly became Oregon's offensive coordinator in 2007 and its head coach in 2009, the incredible statistics and daunting record rolled up by the Ducks has been largely credited to Kelly's famed spread offense. This season Oregon is 10-0, fourth in the country in rushing, second in total yards, and first in scoring with more than 54 points per game. The most common explanation for this success is Kelly's up-tempo, no-huddle approach and the theory that simply running plays quickly is what transforms a good offense into a great one. There's an element of truth to this — the no-huddle is undeniably key to Oregon's identity — but the explanation is incomplete. Oregon doesn't use its fastest tempo all the time, and the benefits of the no-huddle go well beyond those 60 electrifying minutes on Saturdays.
Kelly's anecdote about his old high school team suggests another possibility. Chip Kelly's offense works not because it's a gimmick, but because rather than choose sides between old and new, Kelly's teams straddle history. Oregon is successful because it does well what good teams have always done well, albeit with a slightly more modern wardrobe.
"We spread the defense so they will declare their defensive look for the offensive linemen," Kelly explained at that same clinic. "The more offensive personnel we put in the box, the more defenders the defense will put in there, and it becomes a cluttered mess." Twenty years ago, Kelly's high school coach ran the unbalanced, two–tight end power-I, so he could execute old-school, fundamental football and run the ball down his opponent's throat. Today, Kelly spreads the defense and operates out of an up-tempo no-huddle so he can do the exact same thing.
Every coach has to ask himself the same question: 'What do you want to be?'" Kelly said at a recent clinic. "That is the great thing about football. You can be anything you want. You can be a spread team, I-formation team, power team, wing-T team, option team, or wishbone team. You can be anything you want, but you have to define it." That definition is evident in Oregon. Kelly's choice of a no-huddle spread offense drips from every corner of the impressive practice facilities in Eugene. Oregon does not run a no-huddle offense so much as they are a no-huddle program.
For all of the hype surrounding Oregon games, Oregon practices might be even better. Oregon practices are filled with blaring music and players sprinting from drill to drill. Coaches interact with players primarily through whistles, air horns, and semi-communicative grunts. Operating under the constraint of NCAA-imposed practice time limits, Kelly's sessions are designed around one thing: maximizing time. Kelly's solution is simple: The practice field is for repetitions. Traditional "coaching" — correcting mistakes, showing a player how to step one way or another, or lecturing on this or that football topic — is better served in the film room.
The up-tempo, no-huddle offense ends up benefiting in practice as much as it does in games. Without time wasted huddling, players get many more practice repetitions, leading to increased efficiency on Saturdays. As Sam Snead once said, "practice is putting brains in your muscles," and Oregon's up-tempo practices are all about making Kelly's system second nature.
When the games do begin, there's no question that the no-huddle makes Oregon's attack more dangerous, but it's a common misconception that they have only one supersonic speed. The Ducks use plenty of their superfast tempo, but they actually have three settings: red light (slow, quarterback looks to sideline for guidance while the coach can signal in a new play), yellow light (medium speed, quarterback calls the play and can make his own audibles at the line, including various check-with-me plays), and green light (superfast).
This change of pace is actually how Oregon constantly keeps defenses off balance. If they only went one pace the entire game the offense would actually be easier to defend. When the defense lines up quickly and is set, Kelly takes his time and picks the perfect play. When the defense is desperate to substitute or identify Oregon's formation, the Ducks sprint to the line and rip off two, three, or four plays in a row — and it rarely takes more than that for them to score.
i have been hearing and reading that NFL execs and insiders have been saying that kelly runs the best practices of anyone they've seen and not a one of them has said that what he does in games or in practices wouldn't work.
i think that if he were given more time with the players and was given more mature and experienced players to work with, that he could absolutely do in the pros what he does at the college level.
it's the philosophy, the creativity, the management skills, and his intelligence that has won me over. the lack of NFL experience would only be there for the first year or two. again, if he had a staff made up of NFL experienced coaches i think he would be fine in that regard.
