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The stakes were considerably lower in the first Gene Chizik-Chip Kelly coaching matchup a decade and a half ago.
Chizik was an assistant at Stephen F. Austin, Kelly an assistant at New Hampshire. Not much stands out from that game other than who won.
"They did," Kelly said without a pause. "17-14."
It’s remarkable that one of these two men will win a BCS national championship in just his second year on the job when Oregon meets Auburn on Monday at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
But there is precedent. Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops did it in 2000, Ohio State’s Jim Tressel did it in 2002, and former Florida coach Urban Meyer turned the trick in 2006.
What’s more remarkable about Chizik and Kelly’s presence on the nation’s biggest stage are the paths they took to get here.
Before taking charge at Oregon, Kelly spent his college coaching career toiling as an assistant in the backwater post of Durham, N.H. He was the running backs coach at New Hampshire from 1994 to '96, the offensive line coach from 1997 to '98, and the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 1999 to 2006.
Chizik at least had some history at Auburn, serving as the defensive coordinator from 2002 to 2004. He also benefitted from a two-year run as the assistant head coach at Texas under Mack Brown.
"Mack Brown is the best football coach that I've ever had the privilege to work with and be around," Chizik said. "I took a lot of things from the way he approaches the game, from the way he approaches his players, the way he recruits."
But Chizik had his own off-the-grid stops. He was an assistant at Middle Tennessee, Stephen F. Austin and Central Florida. And when Auburn called him home from Big 12 also-ran Iowa State, the move left many Tigers faithful stunned.
In two years in Ames, Chizik posted a 5-19 record, including a 2-14 conference mark and a 2-10 record in his final season.
"There is always going to be a few people that disagree with anybody's hire, whether it’s in college or the NFL," Chizik said. "But we don't concern ourselves with that because the majority of our fans obviously are all in, have been all in, and I don't think that's changed."
Nor would Chizik change a thing about his past.
"Iowa State was a rebuilding situation for myself and our assistants," he said. "I had a great two years there, learned a lot, did a lot, made a lot of strides, put down an idea of where we wanted to go and how we wanted to get there.
"We would have liked to have had more wins. But we were looking down the road on how to build a foundation and do it right."
Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley believes that experience colored Chizik’s approach.
"Coach had to work hard to get where he is today," Fairley said. "He doesn’t take anything for granted and he tries to teach us that same lesson."
Kelly’s rise at Oregon is a bit cloudier in its origins. Then-Ducks coach Mike Bellotti didn’t know Kelly when he showed up at an Oregon spring practice almost seven years ago. He’d never even heard of him.
"He found us," Bellotti said.
Kelly knew the Ducks were installing a new offense — "the spread shotgun zone read and all that" as Bellotti describes it. Kelly wanted some pointers.
"I really didn’t even interact with him that week," Bellotti said. "But over the next two years he became friends with our offensive coordinator, Gary Crowton."
Kelly has a different recollection about the initial meeting with Bellotti.
"I didn't have a connection," he said. "Somebody talked to him and recommended me and he called me on the phone one day.
"After he said who he was, I said: ‘Seriously. Who is this?’"
When Crowton left to become the offensive coordinator at LSU after the 2006 season, Bellotti compiled a list of seven names to replace him. Some were NFL coordinators, some were Division I-A coordinators. The lone exception was Kelly.
"Chip was by far the best candidate for what I wanted do: continue evolving in the spread option," Bellotti said. "He was detail-oriented, he communicated well, he recruited well and he saw the big picture."
Bellotti knew Kelly was head coaching material in less than one season.
"I’ve had a lot of head coaches on my staff — Chris Petersen, Dirk Koetter, Jeff Tedford," Bellotti said. "I thought Chip was one of if not the best I’ve ever had."
Chizik believes too much is made of his relative lack of experience as a head coach (four years, two winning seasons).
"Every year you learn what to do a little bit better here, a little bit better there," he said. "But in general, overall, I have not changed in four years."
Kelly believes too much is made of the coaches’ unorthodox paths to the BCS title game.
"Coaches come from all walks of life," he said. "(Gene) spent eight years at I-AA. Jim Tressel was a I-AA head coach at Youngstown State. It's just, do you get an opportunity to coach at a certain level?
"I have always felt the big time is where you are at. It doesn't matter if you are going to play in a game that everyone is going to watch or no one is going to watch, you will approach it the same way."
When asked if he ever thought he’d get the chance to coach on this stage, Kelly responded in his trademark, glib fashion.
"Yes. Knew it," he said. "I had it mapped out. I got my life mapped out. 2011, Jan. 10, we would be playing."
But Kelly’s crystal ball has its limits. When asked who would win on Monday, he paused.
"I haven't gotten that far," he said. "I just got myself (mapped) to the 10th."
