Chip Kelly has long been considered a coach with NFL talent. After several successful seasons coaching the Oregon Ducks, including a trip to the BSC National Championship, he became the next coach in talks to make the jump to the NFL. Now he is the newest face of the Philadelphia Eagles going into the 2013 season. However, there was a time where Kelly could have been coaching another NFL team. New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin told media he tried to hire Kelly years ago to coach the Giants.
Coughlin was apparently a big fan of Kelly's while he was coaching in college ranks. The team tried to bring him on board the Giants staff, thinking he was a real talent.
"He should have been coaching for me!" I offered him a job one time. We interviewed Chip for a quality control position a long time ago," Coughlin said.
Kelly was good friends with Dave DeGuglielmo who was a Giants assistant from 2004-08. He recommended Kelly for the job while Kelly was coaching and the University of New Hampshire. Instead, Kelly decided to stick with college coaching and eventually became the head coach at Oregon before ultimately deciding to leave for the pros.
Coughlin has never faced another Philadelphia Eagles coach other than Andy Reid. Now that Reid is gone and Kelly is in, Coughlin will have the challenge of going up against a new coach and new system. He admits there is a challenge when going up against an unfamiliar face.
"We're going to prepare for what the young coach has done very,very well. What else would you do? And we're going to have preseason games and we're going to have to do some speculating, I'm sure," Coughlin said.
There is an unknown aspect of Kelly plans to do with the Eagles. He has been very coy when asked about the type of offense he plans on running. Kelly is known for playing a very fast-paced game. With Michael Vick at quarterback, he can run a lot of read-options like he is used to at Oregon.
Kelly coaching for the Giants could have created a very different landscape for the world of football. Coughlin notes that Kelly wanted to be a quarterbacks coach at the time but the only position open was quality control, ultimately leading to the decision to stay with college. He notes the young coach has done pretty well for himself since.
