The 49ers have again dipped into the ranks of former college coaches, hiring Chip Kelly as head coach Thursday.
BREAKING NEWS: @49ers announce Chip Kelly as 20th head coach in franchise history. https://t.co/zgGYhQ1DJJ pic.twitter.com/Cg6Mc1tzE3
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) January 14, 2016
The 49ers went 5-11 in 2015 under Jim Tomsula, who had been their defensive line coach for nine years.
In hiring Kelly, it’s possible the 49ers are trying to recapture the formula that brought them three straight NFC title game appearances, and one Super Bowl appearance, from 2011-2013.
Jim Harbaugh coached at Stanford for four years before coming to the 49ers. Kelly went 46-7 in four years at Oregon before coming to the Eagles in 2013. He went 10-6 in his first two years with the Eagles, making the playoffs in 2013, before going 6-9 in 2015. Kelly was fired with one game left in the season.
San Francisco was an attractive opening for Kelly because of the presence of Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback he seems to like.
Was told reliably that Chip Kelly considered trading for Kap, so assuming the salary makes sense the partnership could be really good. — Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) January 14, 2016
Kelly isn’t likely to have the same control over personnel decisions in San Francisco that he had in Philadelphia.
Chip Kelly doesn’t want personnel control with the 49ers. Then again, he claimed he didn’t have it in Philly, the day before he was fired.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 14, 2016
At the very least, Kelly figures to be a step up from Tomsula, a position coach who was overmatched as head coach.