Mark Helfrich appealed to Chip Kelly to return to Oregon

After Mark Helfrich got fired by Oregon, many thought Chip Kelly would take over for him. So far, Helfrich has given him the biggest endorsement yet.

Mark Helfrich and the Oregon Ducks departed on very bad terms. Two years after guiding the team to the first ever College Football Playoff during Marcus Mariota’s Heisman season, he finished 4-8 on the season and 2-7 in the Pac-12. But in his first interview since getting fired, he revealed he started contacting Chip Kelly to replace him once things went south:

"When you start thinking of your assistants and all the support staff and all those people, if [Chip] were to come back here, some of those people would be saved."

While it’s a possibility that a lot of Ducks fans would welcome, Kelly has stated that he intends to stay with the San Francisco 49ers. Sitting at 1-10, they are enduring a nightmare season. But after he was fired within three years with the Philadelphia Eagles, Jed York, and Trent Baalke seem to be preaching patience with Kelly.

A lot of people criticized the way the Ducks fired Helfrich. In a press release following his exit, they stressed the way he relied on graduate transfers after Mariota left, and criticized his decision to go for two on every score against Nebraska.

Helfrich himself commented on that press release and said it’s “a little disappointing, for sure, but nothing I’ll think twice about. There’s no doubt about the awkwardness of all of this.” While he won’t admit it, that had to hurt considering he’s an Oregon native, and was offered to play as a walk-on.

There’s no doubt that nobody knows Oregon more than Kelly since he became something of a demigod in Eugene. But there’s no way Kelly saw that and thought, “I would love to work with those guys.”

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Oregon’s fall from the Pac-12 has been swift, and the players certainly deserve better. Even if Kelly isn’t available, there are a lot of college coaches on the market that the Ducks should consider. However, the only coach that could conceivably live up to Kelly’s reputation is arguably Les Miles.