Dear Mr. Canzano,
This would probably be the only time I have ever defended Chip Kelly.
And for how much you always claim to love Chip, you sure have a way of making him look bad. For example, “The head coach is funny, particularly when he’s not trying to be.” If “president” were substituted for “head coach,” that could’ve easily been written about George Bush. . I have never trusted Kelly to be Oregon’s highest paid state employee or even trusted his integrity as he makes himself look bad trying to cover up the same crooked activity all the other “successful” programs have done. But with all that said, I really can’t agree with the statement that Kelly, “Must deliver on the field.”
Last Friday, the day before the Oregon Ducks learned more from Les Miles than they ever have from Chip Kelly, your article asked, “Can he win the big one?” Going into Saturday, Kelly had won 22 games and lost 4. Now he has lost 5 and I assume you still think he hasn’t won the “big one.”
According to you, Kelly was 0-3 in “big marble games.” That sounds especially strange to say after going on to mention beating USC (twice) and Stanford. Let’s consider this a little more realistically… True, Oregon lost a Rose Bowl to Ohio State and a national title to Auburn. But how ugly is it when the only loss of a season comes by 3 points in the last game? If that entire season is not big marbles, I don’t know what is. Don’t forget that the Ducks didn’t just luckily slip into the title game, they thrashed every team (except California, squeaking out by two). And if LSU in a neutral site is a “big marble game” why isn’t playing Tennessee at Knoxville? The Ducks opened last season by thrashing the Vols, 48-13, in a game they weren’t even supposed to win, completely derailing Tennessee’s season in the process the way the Oregonian now talks about this season for the Ducks. Then, there was a 21 point victory at USC. I don’t care what USC is going through right now, that was totally unprecedented in Ducks history. And, oh, the Ducks beat Andrew Luck’s Stanford team by 21 points! That was probably the only thing keeping Stanford from winning the championship. Why isn’t that a “big marble game?”
As for 2009, just making the Rose Bowl was big marbles for the Ducks. Never mind that they didn’t win that or the national championship yet. Baby steps, you gotta be 17 before you can turn 18. What they did to get there was big marbles, mostly that Halloween night in which the Ducks completely embarrassed the Trojans by 27 points with ESPN Gameday in the house! That was the biggest deal in Oregon football history up to that point.
And as for your third “big marble” loss to Boise State to open the 2009 season… In hindsight, it might seem like it was a big marble game. The Broncos have won 56 of 57 home games dating back to 1999. They’ve lost 2 regular season games in the last 3 years. They’re particularly unbeatable on opening day. Given that the Broncos had already won in Eugene the year before, who could expect a guy coaching his first game to walk away with a victory on the blue turf? In context of pre season expectations, no one expected the Ducks to win that game, much less knew what to expect from the season. Except for probably you yourself, no one predicted the Ducks to wind up in the Rose Bowl. Sure, it would’ve been legendary to win at Boise State, but since the team wasn’t yet playing for the big marbles, how can it be a big marble game?
What’s more, it is about as premature to call an opening day game “big marbles” as it is to consider BCS standings in the first half of the season (or at all for that matter). If the Ducks end up 12-1 and win the Pac-12 this season and the Tigers end up 8-4, would last Saturday’s loss still be “big marbles?” No, it would be small change. So, if the Oregonian considers Boise State and LSU games “big marbles” then the other games that were just as big or bigger need to be considered (both USC games, both Stanford games and the Tennessee game). That would make Kelly 4-5 in big marble games. But, it is the poorly structured college system that makes even opening week games seem big stage. It ain’t right to go into the first game thinking, as Darron Thomas did, that the season is over if you lose one game.
Likewise, it’s complete crap when the Ducks win out the Pac 10 and get more credit than the Badgers did for losing only one game in the Big 10. Nationally, it is pretty widely thought that there was no better team in college football than Wisconsin last year. You want a “big marble” game? That will only ever happen when there is a playoff system. It becomes a big stage only if a team can create it for themselves. A big stage is getting to play a team like Wisconsin after having beaten Auburn and Boise State in back to back to weeks. Until that happens, there will be no true champions, thus no big marble games. But if you wanna waste time dreaming up these various big marble scenarios then I will take away credit for losses to Ohio State and Auburn, but Chip Kelly deserves credit for two USC victories and another for thrashing Stanford while being under serious pressure to do so. As much as I loathe the guy, I’d say Chip Kelly is 3-2 in the biggest games he’s coached.
daniel “kid” yoshida
La Grande
matching game:
a. les miles
b. george bush
c. chip kelly
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