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BRAUN TAPS CHIP KELLY TO LEAD OFFENSE;
NEUHEISEL AND DREVNO FOLLOW
In
a move that sent ripples across college football, Northwestern head
coach David Braun removed Wildcat offensive coordinator Zach Lujan and
replaced him with former Oregon and UCLA head coach Chip Kelly. In the
hours since Kelly's hiring, NU has also replaced offensive line coach
Bill O'Boyle with Tim Drevno and added Jerry Neuheisel as the team's
new quarterback coach-- a position that Lujan also maintained until now.Kelly
gained national fame as Oregon's head coach over a decade ago, leading
the Ducks to the 2011 national championship. He also served as UCLA's
head coach-- where he coached alongside Neuheisel, son of former UCLA
head coach Rick Neuheisel. Kelly most recently served as the offensive
coordinator of Ohio State during its national title run in 2024,
followed by a one-season stint as offensive coordinator of the Las
Vegas Raiders.
According to ESPN's Adam Rittenberg,
Coach Braun is giving Kelly the keys to the program's offense: "We're
hiring Chip Kelly to take this offense to a whole other level, an
offense we haven't seen at Northwestern for a long, long, time. My job
is to support him but ultimately trust him. . . For me, to be
mettlesome would be the dumbest thing I could do as a head coach." This
statement implies that Braun will work with defensive coordinator Tim
McGarigle to focus on the defensive side of the ball while Kelly brings
in his own offensive system.
Given the high-profile names now in place within NU's offensive
coaching staff, it will be fascinating to see how the team's transfer
portal and recruiting prospects develop during the next four weeks.
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