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Northwestern University announced the hiring of former NFL and college football head coach Chip Kelly as its new offensive coordinator on Tuesday (December 30).
"Welcome to Northwestern, Chip Kelly! A veteran offensive mind with 35 years of NFL and college experience joins David Braun’s staff as Offensive Coordinator," the Northwestern football program wrote on its X account.
Kelly has an 81-41 collegiate head coaching record during stints at Oregon (2009-2012) and UCLA (2018-2023) and was the offensive coordinator during Ohio State's national championship season in 2024. The 62-year-old also went 28-35 during NFL head coaching stints with the Philadelphia Eagles (2013-2015) and San Francisco 49ers (2016).
Kelly's hiring at Northwestern came one month after he was fired by the Las Vegas Raiders midway through his lone season with the franchise, having been the NFL's highest-paid offensive coordinator with an annual salary of $6 million.
"I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders," head coach Pete Carroll said in a statement released by the Raiders at the time. "I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future."
The Raiders were tied for last among NFL teams in points per game (15.0) and rank 30th in total yards per game (268.9), 31st in rushing yards per game (79.5), 30th in offensive EPA (minus-77.8) and 28th in red zone efficiency (48.1%) and had scored less than 10 points in four games, which occurred more times than any other NFL team, at the time of Kelly's firing.
"I am grateful for the opportunity with the Raiders; bottom line in this league you have to win," Kelly told FOX Sports' Jay Glazer at the time. "I really loved those players. I'm a huge, huge Geno Smith fan. That was one of the best parts of this experience for me, working with Geno and those guys every day.
"But hey, we got to win. I get it."