Oregon Ducks

Mark Helfrich admits he reached out to Chip Kelly weeks before Oregon fired him

Published Dec. 9, 2016 12:45 p.m. ET

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Chris Bahr

Mark Helfrich could read the writing on the wall weeks before he was fired as Oregon’s head coach. And he even reached out to Chip Kelly to ease the awkwardness in case the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach had any desire to return to the Ducks.

Helfrich, who was fired by Oregon on Tuesday after four seasons leading the program, was on Kelly’s coaching staff before Kelly left for the NFL after the 2012 season.

Because Helfrich knew he was on the hot seat in the midst of a 4-8 season – and because Kelly hasn’t exactly found the success he’d hoped for in the NFL – he gave Kelly a call. Helfrich detailed that conversation during an appearance on ESPN Radio on Friday. From that interview:

Helfrich also admitted that he was thinking about his assistants and staff members when he reached out to Kelly.

"When you start thinking of your assistants and all your support staff, if he were to come back, some of those people would be safe," Helfrich said. "Just trying to take our personal relationship out of it, remove me from the equation, and let him think of it that way."

Not long after Helfrich’s dismissal, however, Kelly said he wasn’t interested in returning to Oregon and had no plans to leave the 49ers. In his first season with San Francisco, Kelly is 1-10. He was fired by the Philadelphia Eagles toward the end of the 2015 after three years as their head coach.

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