At this point, we have to wonder who else didn’t know Chip Kelly was leaving Oregon to be the head coach of the Eagles when the surprising news came out Wednesday.
His players? Oregon? His mom and dad, perhaps?
At least one recruit who said he talked to Kelly as recently as Monday was shocked to hear Kelly was leaving. Nico Falah, an offensive tackle who has committed to USC but was fielding other offers, tweeted his surprise shortly after news broke that Kelly would not be returning to Oregon, as Kelly announced last week.
[tweet https://twitter.com/NicoFalah/status/291594892075995137 align=’center’]
Kelly looked to be close to signing with an NFL team — he was originally all set with the Browns — before he suddenly changed his mind and said he would be staying at Oregon. There was speculation about the perks Kelly could get at the different places, including the presence of Nike’s Phil Knight as a booster at Oregon. Whatever Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said this week seems to have done the trick.
Lurie isn’t just a convincing man, though — the surreptitiousness with which he nabbed Kelly after everyone thought the deal was done for Kelly to stay at Oregon is pretty impressive. The surprise could come back to bite Kelly, though, as there will be plenty of people unhappy with the jolt.
Recruits like Falah may be the least of Kelly’s problems as he takes his flip flops and heads to Philadelphia.
