The Buddy Teevens Award was created to honor those coaches who’ve been innovators in growing and improving the game of college football. Named after the legendary Dartmouth College coach, the award recognizes outstanding achievement on the field, as well exceptional leadership that leaves a lasting impact on players, other
coaches, and the sport at large.

Throughout the season, the Maxwell Football Club will showcase current coaches who have led, innovated, and positively impacted the game in the spirit of Coach Teevens.

Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly has been scavenger hunting for creative ways to win football games since accepting an assistant position with Columbia in 1990.

Kelly has been part coach and part mad scientist for the past 34 years. If it improves his players’ potential or makes his team better, he’s willing to try it. This openness to change and fresh ideas has been a trademark of Kelly’s coaching success.

In a profession often marked by rigidity, Kelly is a lifelong learner, a seeker of new solutions to nagging problems.

Even Kelly’s roots are unconventional. He grew up in New Hampshire, hardly a football hotbed, and he played four years at the University of New Hampshire, a school best known for its hockey teams.

It was as an assistant at UNH that Kelly’s offensive ingenuity first began getting noticed.

Kelly devised a unique zone-blocking scheme that helped star RB Jerry Azumah rush for an FCS record 6,193 yards. Durham was his first of many laboratories. The coach never stopped tinkering, tweaking, modifying… or wearing out defenses with a spread attack that moved at breakneck speed.

With Kelly serving as the offensive coordinator, the Wildcats smashed 29 school records in 2004. In 2005, they finished top 5 in FCS total offense (493.5 ypg), scoring (41.7 ppg), and passing (300.1 ypg). And in 2006, Kelly’s triggerman, QB Ricky Santos, won the Walter Payton Award for most outstanding FCS offensive player.

New Hampshire knew Kelly was a special kind of coach. The entire country was about to find out in 2007.

Mike Bellotti hired Kelly to coordinate his offense at Oregon, and it didn’t take long to realize that the success at New Hampshire was going to translate very well in the Pac-10.

In Kelly’s first year in Eugene, the Ducks became the most prolific offensive attack in school history. And Dennis Dixon, who struggled in his first three seasons at quarterback, bloomed into the Pac-10 Player of the Year.

That debut season was a harbinger of things to come.

After two seasons as a coordinator, Kelly succeeded Bellotti to become a head coach for the first time. In four seasons at the helm, he went 46-7, won three conference titles, and turned Oregon into a perennial powerhouse program.

Kelly revolutionized college football in six seasons with the Ducks, and for reasons beyond just his playcalling and pioneering offensive systems.

Kelly was also on the cutting edge of conditioning, sports science, technology, and practicing with efficiency and player safety top of mind.

His holistic approach to recovery and injury reduction prioritizes adequate sleep, proper nutrition and hydration, and efficient practices that maximize production while minimizing risk.

Kelly has also been at the forefront of the intersection of sports and technology, including data and metrics, wearables that track performance and health, and, yes, even personalized smoothies corresponding to the individual data for each player. His commitment to advancement and improving all areas of the game was not limited to college football.

In four seasons in the NFL, the never-ending quest for improvement through innovation continued in Philadelphia and San Francisco. In Kelly’s first season with the Eagles, the team recorded the lowest AGL, or adjusted games lost to injury. With the Niners, Kelly was the first coach to hire a Sports Science Coordinator, former U.S. Navy SEAL Shaun Huls.

Have all of the coach’s moves worked over the years? No. Will that stop him from building better mousetraps? Oh, heck no.

After six seasons as the UCLA head coach, Kelly decided earlier this year to become the Ohio State offensive coordinator alongside his friend and former UNH quarterback Ryan Day. Even his career choices are original and unconventional.

Truth be told, Kelly left Westwood because he wanted to do more of what he loves most – coaching and elevating offenses and the players who operate them. As the sport evolved, he was doing less and less of both at UCLA, so it was time for another bold wrinkle from the coach.

Kelly lives his life with curiosity, a pioneering spirit, and an insatiable appetite for progress. He has placed an indelible stamp on football, from his offensive ingenuity to player and program optimization.

As he continues his journey at Ohio State, one thing remains certain: Kelly will always be at the forefront of innovation, tirelessly pushing the boundaries of the game he loves.