Chip Kelly hired by ESPN as college football analyst

Chip Kelly won’t be coaching anywhere this season. Instead, the former NFL head coach is coming to a television screen near you. ESPN announced they’ve signed Kelly to a multi-year deal as a college football studio analyst.

Kelly will primarily be part of Saturday pregame, halftime and wrap-up shows on ESPN2. He will also provide NFL analysis on Sundays during SportsCenter.

Kelly has been out of a job ever since the 49ers fired him following a 2-14 finish in 2016. Prior to his failed stint in San Francisco, Kelly had been ousted by the Eagles in 2015. After going 20-12 in his first two seasons in Philadelphia, Kelly made a power play for personnel control heading into the 2015 season. Things didn’t go well for the Eagles and Kelly got fired after the team went 6-9 before the final game of the season.

It’s not surprising to see that Kelly hasn’t landed a new coaching job given the way he’s flamed out recently. It is pretty funny that he’s switching over to the media side, though, considering the disdain he seemingly had for those types.

Love him or hate him (and I’m sure it’s mostly the latter for Eagles fans), Kelly is a quick-witted guy who might actually do OK as an analyst. It’ll be interesting to see how long he sticks around at ESPN. One would think he’ll want to jump at the next coaching opportunity that opens up for him.