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Oregon’s Chip Kelly Named Walter Camp 2010 Coach of the Year
Chip Kelly, head coach of the undefeated and BCS National Championship Game-bound Oregon Ducks, has been named the Walter Camp 2010 Coach of the Year.
NEW HAVEN, CT – Chip Kelly, head coach of the undefeated and BCS National Championship Game-bound Oregon Ducks, has been named the Walter Camp 2010 Coach of the Year.
The Walter Camp Coach of the Year is selected by the nation’s 120 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors. Kelly is the first Oregon coach and just the third from the Pacific 10 Conference to earn the award (Arizona State’s Frank Kush in 1975 and Bruce Snyder in 1996).
Under Kelly’s direction, the second-ranked and Pac-10 champion Ducks (12-0) earned their first BCS Bowl Championship Game appearance and will meet No. 1 Auburn (13-0) on January 10 in Glendale, Ariz. It is Oregon’s first 12-win season in its history.
The Ducks lead the nation in scoring average at 49.3 points per game, while ranking second in total offense at 537.5 yards per contest. Oregon has also excelled on defense, allowing just 18.4 points a game – 14th lowest in the nation. Two Oregon players also earned 2010 All-America accolades from the Walter Camp Foundation. Sophomore running back LaMichael James, the nation’s top rusher, is a First Team selection, while sophomore defensive back/kick returner Cliff Harris is a Second Team pick.
Kelly came to Oregon in 2007 and served as the offensive coordinator for two seasons before being named the head coach on March 30, 2009 following Mike Bellotti’s retirement. In just two seasons as head coach, Kelly is 22-3, including a 17-1 record in conference play, and has won two Pac-10 regular season titles. Kelly is a two-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year and recently earned the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year and American Football Coaches Association West Region Co-Coach of the Year honor.
Prior to his arrival in Eugene, Kelly served as assistant coach at several schools on the East Coast, including Columbia (1990-91), New Hampshire (1992, 1994-2006) and Johns Hopkins (1993). At New Hampshire, Kelly was the team’s offensive coordinator for eight seasons and his Wildcat offensive units accumulated many school records.
A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, Kelly is a 1990 graduate of the University of New Hampshire and earned a B.A. in physical education.
Coach Kelly, along with members of the 2010 Walter Camp All-America team, will be honored at the organization’s national awards banquet on Saturday, January 15, 2011 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
Walter Camp, "The Father of American football," first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp — a former Yale University athlete and football coach — is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation — a New Haven based all volunteer group — was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All America team.
About the Foundation
"Walter Camp was one of the giants of football in the United States. He stands with Stagg, Rockne, Thorpe, Warner, Heffelfinger in the imprint they made upon the game. He stands first among them, for it was he who sired the game as it is played in the United States, the game that evolved from the rugby football of England. He played in the first Yale-Harvard game of rugby in 1876. From then on, his was the fertile, inventive mind and guiding leadership that brought about the evolution of the American style of football."
More about Walter Camp