Chip Kelly helped Alabama win the College Football Playoff national championship game

The Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the previously undefeated Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff national championship game by a final score of 45 to 40. And it was all thanks to Chip Kelly.

Wait. What? Not really. But sort of!

Let's go back to last week. Remember that report about how Chip Kelly was spotted in Tuscaloosa? Alabama head coach Nick Saban confirmed that Kelly visited Alabama. Saban said Kelly's visit didn't "really anything of significance relative to [the championship game]" but he might not have been telling the truth.

During ESPN's broadcast on Monday evening, color commentator Kirk Hirbstreit revealed Kelly helped Alabama's offense leading up to the title game. Listen for yourself:

"You're seeing more tempo tonight from Alabama than you typically see. Lane Kiffin had worked actually in the last week with Chip Kelly. Chip Kelly visited Tuscaloosa and one of the things they talked about is what tempo can do to a Clemson defense. And you've seen a lot of evidence of that tempo tonight."

Sure enough, Alabama put up 45 points and 474 total yards on Clemson's defense. Maybe that "talk" really did help.

Now, obviously Kelly wasn't a main factor in this victory. Alabama is a really good team. They were favored to win this game by seven points. Still, it's interesting to see that Kelly made some kind of contribution.

Hey, who knows, maybe this will inspire Kelly to go back to college. The former Eagles head coach has stated he wants to stay in the NFL but he isn't exactly drawing a lot of interest. Only the 49ers interviewed him and that was because he has a connection with former Eagles executive Tom Gamble.