FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2011 file photo, Oregon's head coach Chip Kelly smiles before the Pac 12 championship football game against UCLA in Eugene, Ore. The Philadelphia Eagles have hired Kelly after he originally chose to stay at Oregon. Kelly becomes the 21st coach in team history and replaces Andy Reid, who was fired on Dec. 31 after a 4-12 season. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens, File)
Column: Hiring Kelly risky move for Eagles
FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2011 file photo, Oregon's head coach Chip Kelly smiles before the Pac 12 championship football game against UCLA in Eugene, Ore. The Philadelphia Eagles have hired Kelly after he originally chose to stay at Oregon. Kelly becomes the 21st coach in team history and replaces Andy Reid, who was fired on Dec. 31 after a 4-12 season. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens, File)
By TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Columnist /
January 16, 2013
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Kelly inherits a team that has plenty of talent, along with a reputation for underachieving. He will undoubtedly install a version of the speedy Oregon offense in Philadelphia, and Michael Vick seems to be the perfect fit to run it.
The Eagles should be better next season, if only because it’s hard to get worse than the team that sleepwalked its way to a 4-12 record this year.
But Kelly is taking a chance and it’s a career chance. He goes from a school that is a perennial contender for the national title to a league where only the New England Patriots are perennial contenders for the Super Bowl.
There are no cupcakes on the schedule, no guarantees that the team he fields will be any better than the one he takes over.
And the trail is littered with coaches with big reputations who have gone before him and failed.
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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg
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