Mouth of Manchester has high-flying Ducks spreading their wings

"I don't know if it's being from the East Coast or whatever, I talk fast and we just want to play," Kelly said.

That explains why Oregon leads the Pac-10 and is in the top 10 nationally in plays per game.

Oregon's current success actually started at the beginning of this decade. New Hampshire was a run-based offense that had just sent two players from the same I-AA backfield to the NFL. Former fullback Dan Krieder is still with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tailback Jerry Azumah, a Walter Payton Award winner (the I-AA Heisman), played for a while with the Bears.

But when those players left, something had to be done. Kelly went to work with new head coach Sean McDonnell developing the spread.

"We were an I-formation rock you, sock you, run-the-football type of team," Kelly said. "Because Danny and Jerry played as true freshmen it was difficult for us to recruit quality running back depth. When they graduated we just realized our third receiver needed to get on the field instead of the fullback. Our game had to change. The joke is that fullbacks go to college at 6-2 and leave at 5-10."

In the spread, fullbacks are gone altogether. Quarterback Ricky Santos, who Kelly left behind, has shattered just about every passing record at New Hampshire and won last year's Walter Payton Award. Dixon was next in line for Kelly. The senior from California was always talented but lacked a breakthrough season. He was injured for part of last season, then upset Bellotti by going to play minor league baseball in the summer when he could have been working out in Eugene with Kelly and his teammates.

Turns out too much was made of that. Dixon goes into this bye week -- and probably emerges from it -- as the Heisman frontrunner.

"He's been one of the prime catalysts in our resurgence," Bellotti said of Dixon. "He had to earn this. He didn't have as much notoriety as some others but I think he's just outperformed people."

If he isn't the new Vince Young, Dixon has the best ball fakes since the Texas great. It helps to have the nation's No. 11 rusher Jonathan Stewart taking those handoffs (or not).

"A good fake is worth two blocks," Kelly said. "The fundamentals of the handoff are that you (quarterback) have to run every single time like you have the ball. It's not unlike coaching an option quarterback back in the day."

At the end of 2005 Young was the best player in the country (Reggie Bush included). College football hasn't seen a player like him since. Dixon might come closest with his 68 percent completion percentage, 549 yards rushing and only three interceptions in 246 throws.

"One of them was a tipped pass in the Cal game," Kelly said. "The other was on the last play of the half against Washington when we just threw a Hail Mary up. He threw one pick, one legitimate pick."

It hit Kelly for a brief moment after the USC game when Kelly was asked to consider how far he had traveled. Literally and figuratively. His offense had just put up 339 yards (182 rushing) and 22 first downs on the Trojan defense. That's a bit different than scheming against I-AA defenses.

"It's not like I went from coaching football to coaching basketball," The Fast Talker said. "At that point the coaching part of it can be overrated ... It's still 11-on-11 football. But that's the best defense we faced. You have seven first-round NFL Draft picks."

At that moment, Chip Kelly realized he wasn't in New Hampshire anymore.