July 25, 2026Updated July 26, 2026, 9:00 p.m. ET
Perhaps nobody was more surprised by where former Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly landed after he was fired from the Las Vegas Raiders than me. Kelly is one of the greatest offensive minds in football, and there had to be a decent number of options for him to come back to the college game.
Kelly accepted a college offensive coordinator position, but at Northwestern rather than a bigger, brand-name program you would think would be more in his wheelhouse. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of a difference Kelly can make at a program that always seems to have to do more with less.
Speaking of more with less, perhaps Northwestern shared a very unflattering photo of Kelly — more or less — in a hard hat as an update on the construction of the new stadium in Evanston. He spoke to the media from inside the new state-of-the-art stadium, and if you haven’t seen it yet, we’re sure you’ll get at least a little chuckle out of it.
Kelly clearly had safety on his mind because he had a bright purple (yay Northwestern colors) and yellow safety vest on, topped off with a hard hat, we’re assuming because of the construction rather than the chance of an unassuming pigeon using his head for target practice. Get a look for yourself, but sit down first and clear the furniture.
Something tells me this isn’t quite the type of situation Kelly thought he’d find himself in when he took the job with “Chicago’s Big Ten team,” but at least he’s setting a good example.
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As a reminder, Northwestern opens its new stadium, also called Ryan Field like the previous one, against Penn State on Oct. 2.
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