Chip Kelly Updates: Buckeyes Continuing To Improve Offensively

COLUMBUS — Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly met with reporters on Tuesday to talk about the Buckeyes’ recent performance against Purdue, the upcoming game at Wrigley Field, and much more. The highlights of everything he had to say can be found below.

TreVeyon Henderson is an extremely versatile back that can play all three downs. He has long speed on perimeter runs. He’s a weapon in the passing game. He gives you everything you could want right now.
On Will Howard’s footwork as a deep thrower: He has gotten better each week. Knowledge and understanding were also an issue early on. When your head is moving, your feet sometimes aren’t. He’s improving and doing well. He knows that. The deep throw to Carnell Tate was a blown coverage that caught Will Howard off guard.
Kelly is not surprised by Will Howard’s accuracy. He is tall, stands in the pocket, and has an understanding of everything they are trying to do. Kelly jokingly added that Howard prefers noon games and will always complete 80% of his passes in noon games, so that should end any of that kind of controversy.
The offensive line being a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award: That’s pretty cool for those guys. That’s a prestigious award. They don’t get a lot of attention. “They buy their clothes at True Value Hardware.”
On the OL’s response since losing Josh Simmons: “I’ve been really impressed.” Donovan Jackson and Seth McLaughlin have stepped up and been great leaders. McLaughlin calls all of the identifications and directs where the blocking will go. The team has rallied around him and Jackson.
On playing a game at Wrigley: “Yeah, I think it’s cool.” He’s been there once. It makes it a unique experience.
On Will Howard rushing more: That’s a product of what the defense is doing. “It’s as simple as that.” When you get into conference play, there are a lot of teams that know how to stop the run, so you have to add something to it.
They don’t tell Will Howard to run or not on the read plays. It’s a read. Just like they don’t tell him where to throw. It’s a read and a progression. He’s been really well trained in that at Kansas State. “I think he does a really, really good job of that.” When they put something in new in the QB run game, it’s never new to Howard because he did it at Kansas State.
On the slower pace of offense now: You can communicate better. They can provide more information to the QB, who then relays that info to the rest of the offense. A lot of people have slowed down around the country. More teams do it to Ohio State to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible.
Does it take discipline to stay with the run game? It takes discipline to know what the defense is trying to take away, and then do what is best for the offense.
“I love going places and playing in these iconic stadiums.”