It's no surprise that Chip Kelly's handprints are all over the Oregon Ducks football team.
From their sports science training to their offensive scheme to their entire organizational philosophy, Kelly, now head coach of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, left a clear and lasting legacy at the program he first joined as offensive coordinator in 2007 and left in the capable hands of coach Mark Helfrich in 2013 after six seasons, one BCS National Championship Game, two Rose Bowls and three consecutive conference championships.
"The basics of our program are still what Chip's built," Oregon outside linebackers coach Erik Chinander, who was an Eagles assistant in 2013, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Mark's taken it and made it his own and tried to raise the bar a little bit. But the vision's still the same. The mantra's still the same. I don't think Chip's mark on this university will ever go away."
But, if you thought Kelly's long football reach extended to only one half of the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship, set to be played Monday night in Arlington, Texas, you'd be wrong.
The Ohio State Buckeyes and coach Urban Meyer have implemented a number of Kelly's training and practice regimen habits - something to which Meyer attributes much of the team's success this season and their impending appearance in the CFP Championship Game.
Meyer, who spent several days at the NovaCare Complex, the Eagles' practice facility, last offseason visiting with Kelly, said, per a report from Zach Berman of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the experience was eye-opening.
The Eagles "took a next step as far as player welfare, as far as the hydration, nutrition . . . They do GPS tracking," Meyer said Saturday. "They do a phenomenal job on nutrition [in] teaching them and educating them.
"It used to be, 'Don't do this because, don't put bad stuff in your body because,' " Meyer said. "We still do that, because you're modifying behavior, but as long as a player knows if you have any dream of becoming an elite athlete and you [don't take care of your body], there's a great chance that's not going to happen for you. So, we really took all that and brought it back to our program this spring and summer."
Riley Cooper, a wide receiver for the Eagles and former Meyer player when the two were at Florida, also helped to turn the two-time National Championship winning coach onto the benefits of Kelly's ways.
"What he was and what he is now are two different [things] because of how he's taking care of his body," said Mickey Marotti, Ohio State's assistant athletic director for football sports performance. "It was kind of the icing on the cake."
Meyer even took a page from Kelly's communication playbook, always offering the "why" of any decision or altered practice habit to his players.
With the addition of Kelly's sports science vision to his already strong coaching capabilities, Meyer seems poised to potentially win his third national championship, ironically by defeating the very team that Kelly originally built in his up-tempo image.
"Probably as important as what defense you call," Meyer said of his newfound use of sports science.
"Not probably. As important as what defense you're going to call."
