Ohio State Buckeyes’ Chip Kelly Calls Out Oregon Ducks, Dan Lanning

Ohio State Buckeyes offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is getting set for Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship, but the Oregon Ducks are remaining a topic of discussion for the former head coach.

Kelly, who was Oregon’s offensive coordinator in 2007 and ’08 before becoming the program’s head coach for four seasons, had some strong words for his former team when talking about the intentional illegal substitution penalty, a unique strategy that Ducks coach Dan Lanning elected to use late in Oregon’s 32-31 win over the Buckeyes in Eugene on Oct. 12. The flag drained precious seconds off the clock, giving Ohio State less time for a potential game-winning field goal.

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The Buckeyes got their chance at revenge in the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl and certainly made the most of it, beating Oregon 41-21. This result in Pasadena is something Kelly pointed to while calling out his former team for using the intentional penalty.

“It was a unique message to our players, that you can’t stop us with 11,” Kelly said. “You had to stop us with 12. And then you saw the final result of 11 vs. 11.”

The play — which was met with some controversy — happened on the final possession of the game when Ohio State was looking to put together a game-winning drive down by one. With 22 seconds to play, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard found star freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith for a completion that put the Buckeyes well within game-winning field-goal range at the Oregon 21-yard line. 

However, Smith was called for an offensive pass interference penalty, which set the Buckeyes back to the Ducks’ 43-yard line. Smith spoke with the media ahead of the Rose Bowl and admitted he still thinks about that penalty, even calling it a “crazy call.”

“I think about that call probably every day,” Smith said. “It was a crazy call. The DB was holding me; I just cleared his hands. I guess receivers can’t be physical in football anymore, but DBs could hold 10 yards, 15 yards down the field. It’s behind me. I know the move from here on out when the DB is grabbing me. I guess you can’t be physical as a receiver in college football anymore. We’ll just see how things play out in this game.”

The Buckeyes got the last laugh and will now have a chance to officially put that tough loss behind them when they kick off against Notre Dame from Atlanta on Monday night.