Ohio State is fresh off a national championship. Ryan Day has broken the decade-long curse, hitting the bull’s eyes after a lot of back and forth in the process. Now, the trophy is home, but not without a pinch of controversy again. Chip Kelly, the fiery offensive coordinator of Ohio State’s top-tier offense, has made a questionable comment on his past school, Oregon, during one of October’s late downs against the Ducks.

Ducks fans immediately went mad, launching counterattacks on Kelly. But Oregon insiders finally break out where the real trouble lies.

Oregon insider backs up Chip Kelly amidst growing controversy 

The Buckeyes ended up losing a heartbreaker to the Ducks 32-31, thanks in part to a super sneaky move by Oregon’s coach, Dan Lanning. Lanning called a penalty on purpose to run the clock down, blocking Ohio State’s chance at a game-winning field goal. However, it served as a wake-up call to Ohio State. Kelly and his squad didn’t let it set them back to another loss.

The Buckeyes staged a stern revenge in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl, knocking the Ducks out 41-21. Kelly made his feelings known without a second thought. Throwing light shades on his former team’s cunning strategy, the standout OC noted, “It was a unique message to our players, that you can’t stop us with 11. You had to stop us with 12,” referencing the Ducks’ tendentious penalty in October.

The Buckeyes are turning this bumpy season into fuel, proving legends are forged in the fires of adversity. Lanning’s decision to use an illegal substitution remained a turning point in Ohio State’s national championship journey. Chip Kelly saw it as a desperate attempt to gain an unfair advantage, and he later sought to even the score. However, an Oregon insider saw no wrongdoing. While not fully endorsing the quote, he criticized the backlash Kelly faced for it.

Spencer McLaughlin said, “I’ll tell you what he was asked about, you know, the Oregon game and the late game situation where Lanning read the rule book and put 12 on the field and whatnot, he said, quote ‘I’ll tell you what it was a unique message with our players. You can’t stop us with 11; you had to stop us with 12’ Kelly said. ‘You saw the final results of 11 versus 11, so that was a message to our team for the week leading up to the Rose bowl.”’ He thinks the reason it made so much noise was because it was said by the winning team coach. If they lost, the comment would have made zero sense.

‘‘It clearly worked. That’s the first thing,” Spencer said. ‘‘The second thing is if an Oregon coach made a quote like that but was in the Ohio State position, Oregon fans would go bananas. I would go crazy and be like this is the coolest thing ever,’‘ the Ducks insider pulled on the hypocrisy of the natural fan instinct. After all, he walked in their shoes and knows how it feels to be on the other side.

But again, it shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s upsetting how Lanning lost momentum in their picture-perfect season’s trail, but the truth always stands tall. Oregon failed to sustain a big game. They got whooped by a better team. Straight and simple ”If Will Stein made that sort of coach when that had been done to Oregon, you’d love it because at the end of the day, you’re not mad at that quote; you’re not mad at Chip Kelly. What you are mad at is the fact that Oregon played a poor game against Ohio State and got out-coached on January 1st by Chip Kelly and others. That’s what you’re actually upset about,” McLaughlin said, making his stance clear.

However, despite the flying flakes and the tons of attention, Chip Kelly seems to be quite low-key after his first win as an Ohio State OC.

The dreamy Natty win didn’t inflate Kelly’s ego

Ryan Day hired Kelly to fix his past losses but would not have thought that it would start to reap fruits immediately. Kelly came and did his best to add to the team’s legacy. From brushing up the players to reach their absolute high to steering some of the biggest play calls of his career, the new OC has been a sensation in Columbus. But Chip Kelly chose to be on the sideline.

Right after the game went down, reporters started looking out for the heroic OC, but Kelly was initially found nowhere. However, finally, when he came up, he was asked the obvious question: how did a championship feel on his mantle? Kelly immediately passed the prize to the players, saying, “It’s not my mantle. It’s on the player’s mantle.” Well, the wolf doesn’t brag; he just hunts.

If you go back to his previous stance on leaving the UCLA job, you might find a lot of sense in his stoic, non-emotional behavior. Kelly once said that coaching has become like a CEO operation that needs to align with big power, and hence he chose Ohio State.

Now, the pressure’s on to prove he was right. That CFP win just added $700k to his bonus, so he’s got a lot on his plate. So, staying non-giddy might not be an option but the only choice for a highly ambitious veteran coach.