When Chip Kelly shocked college football last off season, leaving the coveted head coaching job at UCLA to take a step back and became Ryan Day's offensive coordinator at Ohio State, many wondered if it would spark a trend among college football head coaches.
Just recently, we got our answer, at least in part, when Gus Malzahn opted to leave UCF to become the offensive coordinator at Florida State for Mike Norvell.
After Chip landed in Columbus, he shared how stepping in to coach the team's quarterbacks during their bowl prep sparked something deep inside of him, reminding him how much he enjoyed spending his time coaching and evaluating players, and not all the other things that tend to get piled on a head coach's plate.
Judging from the former Broyles Award Winner's comments today, he shared a similar perspective.
“The job description of a head college football coach has changed dramatically in the last two years with everything - transfer portal to collectives to agents and everything that goes with that."
"I’m just an old-school football coach," Malzahn added.
The fact that an opportunity to join Norvell's staff certainly played a role as well, as the Seminoles head coach was a graduate assistant during Malzahn's first coordinator opportunity at Tulsa in 2007.
From a foundational perspective, the transition should be simple, as the two share a lot of terminology already.
“Our foundation on offense is from the same family. He’s got his own wrinkles, and I’ve had my own wrinkles...but there is a lot more things that are in common. We still have the same terminology, the way we identify things like formations and player alignment, numbers.
“That’s why it’s a really, really easy transition. We’re going to play fast. I think that’s the No. 1 thing. We’re going to play fast.”
As Malzahn starts (or re-starts) this new chapter at age 59, it's worth noting that he went 105-62 as the head coach at Arkansas State, Auburn and UCF.