Ohio State’s Chip Kelly takes shot at Oregon: ‘You can’t stop us with 11′

Former Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly took a shot at his former football program on Saturday.

Ahead of Monday’s national championship game against Notre Dame, the current Ohio State offensive coordinator was asked about what motivated the Buckeyes entering their Rose Bowl matchup with Oregon — a 41-21 blowout win.

Kelly pointed to the 12 men on the field penalty taken intentionally by Dan Lanning and company during the two teams’ regular season matchup, which Oregon won, 32-31.

“I’ll tell you what, it was a unique message with our players: you can’t stop us with 11. You had to stop us with 12,” Kelly told reporters. “You saw the final results of 11 versus 11. So, that was a message to our team for the week leading up to the Rose Bowl that I think resonated really well with our guys.”

Ohio State led 34-0 at one point in the first half against the Ducks, and superstar freshman wideout Jeremiah Smith was a major reason why. He finished with seven catches for 187 yards and two touchdowns vs. Oregon.

It was Kelly’s first win over the Ducks as an opposing coach: he was previously 0-5 against Oregon between his time as head coach at UCLA and offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes went on to beat Texas, 28-14, at the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl. They are 8.5-point favorites over the Fighting Irish in the national championship game.

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— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.