Tennessee Vols: Chip Kelly, Recruiting, And Why It Shouldn’t Be A Worry

The Tennessee Vols still have a head coach, but there could be a change at the end of the season if things don’t improve in Knoxville.

There’s little doubt that former Oregon head coach Chip Kelly will be one of the hottest coaching names on the market for the 2018 NCAA season.

And the Tennessee Vols are a team that could pique Kelly’s interest, if Butch Jones ends up getting fired.

But one concern I’ve seen lately is Kelly’s attitude when it comes to recruiting.

It’s no surprise that Kelly isn’t a huge fan of recruiting, but I think most college coaches would agree it’s their least favorite aspect of the job. It’s just one of those things coaches have to deal with.

And if Kelly wants to return to coaching, he’s almost certainly going to have to return to the college ranks. Which means he’s just going to have to deal with it.

Kelly’s former offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich once said that his former boss didn’t necessarily hate recruiting, but just strongly disliked it.

"Helfrich: “I’m not sure if he hated recruiting…dislike, a strong dislike.”"

So how did Kelly do in terms of recruiting at Oregon?

Well, he was fairly average.

Here’s how his classes ranked (note: in 2007 and 2008 he was Oregon’s offensive coordinator).

• 2007: 14
• 2008: 34
• 2009: 30
• 2010: 12
• 2011: 12
• 2012: 14

And with that talent, his teams were among the top in the nation.

Here’s his record during his four years at Oregon.

• 2009: 10-3
• 2010: 12-1
• 2011: 12-2
• 2012: 12-1

First off, that tells me that Kelly is one hell of a football coach.

I’m willing to bet with his reputation, he could pull top ten classes at Tennessee. The school pretty much recruits itself. Kelly’s reputation as a good coach could do the rest. He’s probably not going to pull top five classes, but he’s a good enough coach that he doesn’t have to get top tier classes (as you’ve seen, top ten classes don’t equal success if you don’t have a good in-game coach).

There’s also the method Kelly uses to recruit that is interesting.

Kelly recruits fast athletes. He worries about what position they’ll play once they get to campus.

Here’s an interesting article from ESPN that dives into Kelly’s recruiting approach a bit more.

Look, recruiting is very important. And it’s clear Kelly doesn’t love it. But he hates losing, and his return to college football is imminent. He’s going to have to recruit and he likely knows that.

Next: 5 Coaches Tennessee Should Not Hire

Tennessee’s already has a great recruiter who is a poor in-game coach.

Perhaps it’s time to flip the script and see how that works.