Doing Their Part

A blog item a little while back mentioned that the Colgate football team was holding a Lift For Life event to "raise money and awareness for the fight against Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a disorder that affects the sister of one of the Colgate players."

Two other opponents Dartmouth will face this fall are also trying to do their part off the field. The Harvard squad helped coordinate a blood drive with the American Red Cross, as part of its Crimson in the Community program, on March 6.

Next month it will be Princeton hosting a bone marrow testing drive as part of its "Get in the Game. Save a Life," program.

I can still remember the "nattering nabobs of negativism," who didn't think a lowly FCS assistant coach belonged in the rarified air of FBS football when New Hampshire assistant Chip Kelly took his innovative attack to Oregon in 2007. Kelly didn't take long to win them over. Nor has he taken long to rise to the ranks of an FBS head coach. Oregon has announced the head coach-in-waiting will wait just a little while longer, assuming the reins officially on July 1March 30, the first day of spring practice.

Once again, there are naysayers, but don't count Oregonian columnist John Canzano among them. He wrote:

What kind of head coach will Kelly be? Will he command respect? Will the older players, those recruited to play for Bellotti, fit with Kelly's style.

Said (senior offensive lineman Max) Unger: "When Kelly speaks in meetings, you can hear a pin drop."

I've talked to Kelly at least a dozen times. I took a long elevator ride from the press box to the stadium floor with him the night Dennis Dixon's knee failed in Tucson, Ariz. But more significantly, like you, I've seen his work on the field. And coaches aren't judged by their speeches, or their ability to shake hands, but the bottom line.

I believe Kelly will win bigger than any Ducks football coach before him.