As part of Ohio State football’s restructuring after its third straight loss to Michigan, Ryan Day hired UCLA head coach Chip Kelly as the Buckeyes’ new offensive coordinator. But Urban Meyer, Day’s predecessor, said OSU fans shouldn’t expect the “Blur” offense that Kelly became famous for at Oregon.

As head coach of the Ducks, Kelly, who coached and worked with Day at New Hampshire, installed an offense built around speed. Under Kelly’s plays, Oregon relied on a fast-paced offense and beat teams with an incredibly effective running attack. Kelly eventually left Oregon for the NFL, where he coached the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers before returning to college football with UCLA.

The different paths Kelly took to get to Ohio State and back with Day have made him a much, much better playmaker than he was during his time at Oregon, according to Meyer.

“I’ve known Chip forever, we’re very close, we spend a lot of time together in the spread offense,” Meyer said on The Herd. “His philosophy back at Oregon as head coach and coordinator was to be as fast as possible. That evolved when he went to the NFL, and it evolved even more when he went to UCLA. He’s the consummate playmaker now. He’s a guy who gets together, takes his time and makes the perfect play. That’s drastically different than what he was as head coach at Oregon.”

And for any Ohio State fans who expected Kelly’s famous Oregon offense to be brought to Columbus this fall, Meyer said that won’t be the case.

“This Chip Kelly offense is completely different from the so-called ‘radical’ offense he ran as head coach at Oregon,” Meyer said. “It’s completely different, and I think it will help Ohio State. And they have the quarterback (Will Howard) that I think fits that mold.”

Chip Kelly begins his first season as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator

After being fired by the San Francisco 49ers, Chip Kelly accepted the job at UCLA in November 2017, returning to college football after leaving in January 2013. Although Kelly consistently won eight or nine games in the final seasons of his tenure, the Bruins never got past that. In addition, Kelly was criticized for his perceived lack of interest in recruiting during his time at UCLA.

Although Kelly could have returned to Los Angeles for his seventh season, he decided to pack up and join Ryan Day and the Ohio State football coaching staff as offensive coordinator. That position is likely to be a tighter recruiting position and will allow the coach to focus more on calling plays.

Ohio State opens the season at home against Akron on August 31.