Florida Gators To Reach Out, Try Hiring Chip Kelly

The Florida Gators have fired Will Muschamp and the search for his replacement is getting underway with some big names on the wish list.

When the Florida Gators fired Will Muschamp for running the program into the ground, the thought from fans was that a big name coach would be hired to turn everything around. So far names like John Gruden, Jim Harbaugh and Mike Shanahan have been kicked around along with Hugh Freeze.

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But the Gators might be going way outside of the box for their coaching hire as they’re reportedly chasing Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly.

According to Mark Farzetta of CBS Philly, the Gators are expected to reach out to Kelly this week to gauge his interest in leaving the NFL to return to college.

As crazy as it may seem for the Gators to be chasing Kelly, they can’t be blamed for trying. Under the ‘no stone unturned’ strategy, there is no harm in the Gators contacting Kelly to see where his line of thinking is at. It’s also not crazy to think that Kelly would abandon the NFL to return to college.

For starters, he’s done it once already when he burned both the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers only to return to Oregon for a year and then jump to Philadelphia. NFL defenses are starting to catch up to his fast paced offense as the league evolves and if Kelly were to return to college football by taking the Gators job, he’d be moving to the SEC — a conference as powerful and popular as the NFL as a whole.

Kelly would also be free of NCAA ‘show cause’ sanctions, as whatever penalties he accumulated at Oregon expire before the end of 2014.

He has a good thing going in Philadelphia, but it’s a lot easier for a guy like Kelly to build a dynasty in the NCAA than it is in the NFL which is why a return to college by way of the Florida job isn’t that crazy of an idea.

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