Philadelphia Eagles hire Oregon's Chip Kelly; how does it impact Ohio State?

Despite having turned down overtures from the Philadelphia Eagles and reaffirmed his commitment to the Oregon Ducks not even 10 days ago, ostensibly out of nowhere, Ducks head coach Chip Kelly has agreed to become the next head coach of the Eagles after all, per ESPN's Chris Mortensen. There were some outright shocked he stayed in the first place, assuming Kelly and the Ducks were in for an NCAA hurting due to their ties to alleged street agent Willie Lyles. Whether valid or not, those trepidations certainly have to be back in play with Kelly high tailing it out of dodge for the greener shores of the National Football League.

So how does this impact Ohio State? In the short term, particularly with the Buckeyes still making offers and scheduling visits with wide receivers from the class of 2013 (and beyond), 4-star WR Dontre Wilson of DeSoto, Texas, an Oregon commit, could become back in play almost immediately. Though Wilson reaffirmed his allegiance to the Ducks two weeks ago, saying he'd committed to the program and not just Kelly (and pointing out that the Ducks had done just fine when Mike Bellotti and yielded the keys to Kelly), with Kelly's abrupt departure, it's not hard to imagine it being jarring to an 18 year old. Urban Meyer was also said to be visiting Wilson's Texas school soon and given the circumstances, the timing probably couldn't be better.

The 5-10 165 pound WR/RB runs a 4.4 40 and was rated as the 6th best "all-purpose back" in the country and the 11th best prospect out of the always talent rich state of Texas. He's also graded by the 247Composite rankings as the 82nd best player in the entire class of 2013.

Of course then there's the matter of fact that Buckeyes will go down as one of the last defenses to truly keep Kelly's Ducks in check. In the 2010 Rose Bowl, the Bucks limited the Ducks to just 260 yards of total offense and 17 points in a 26-17 victory.

Oregon is widely expected to name offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich as Kelly's successor. Whether the abruptness of this changes their mind or not, the timing probably limits their options to Helfrich for this season. If it doesn't work out, particularly given Oregon alum Phil Knight's Nike war chest, the Ducks are always free to cut their losses and potentially re-explore their options for 2014 and beyond afterwards.