Ohio State is tied with Texas late in the third quarter at the Cotton Bowl, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is giving fans agita.
Kelly, who is in his first season calling plays for the Buckeyes, has drawn the ire of some OSU fans for his decisions so far tonight. On Ohio State’s last possession, Kelly elected to call a pitch play on 3rd-and-1 rather than run a quarterback sneak with Will Howard or even an inside running play with his running back. The call failed, and the Buckeyes had to punt.
Texas got the ball back and drove down to tie the game on a touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to running back Jaydon Blue, their second scoring hookup of the night.
As the Longhorns were marching downfield, the heat was turned up on Kelly on social media.
“Wtf is Chip Kelly doing!!??” one person asked.
“Chip Kelly and Ryan Day I hope yall are looking at your books right now. Need offense to score every drive from here on,” an Ohio State fan added.
“It amazes me how it was 3rd and a foot and Chip Kelly decided that not asking 6-5, 245-pound Will Howard to sneak it was the right call…and then they lost yardage on a pitch and punted,” chimed in minor league baseball announcer Brennan Mense.
“Maybe I’m an idiot, but I feel like if every run play goes for 1 yard and every pass play goes for 8 yards, I would start passing it way more cc: Chip Kelly,” a fourth person said.
“why are we tossing the ball on 3rd and 1, chip kelly really is a stressful offensive coordinator, smash mouth football, he really is complicating things with this game, i really don’t understand why, take what they give you…” another Ohio State fan said.
With the score now knotted at 14, Kelly could use a big response. He came up with one right before halftime, dialing up the perfect screen call against an ill-timed Texas blitz, resulting in a 75-yard touchdown pass to running back TreVeyon Henderson to put the Buckeyes ahead.
You can watch Ohio State-Texas on ESPN.
Related: College Football Fans Amazed By Chris Fowler’s Call On ESPN