UCLA signs Chip Kelly to five-year deal to become next Bruins coach

Kelly is on his way to returning to the Pac-12 after a five-year absence from college football

Chip Kelly is back in college football. After a five-year hiatus to try out the NFL and TV, Kelly is heading to Los Angeles to take over at UCLA with a five-year contract worth $23.9 million. With an average salary of $4.78 million, Kelly would rank just outside the top 10 of college football's highest-paid coaches, according to the most recent USA Today coaches salaries database. 

Kelly confirmed the news to ESPN's "College GameDay" Saturday morning. This comes hours after ESPN announced Kelly would not be on the air Saturday for its college football shows and one day after a report from Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde stated that Florida, another school heavily pursuing Kelly, had "moved on" in its search.

"I am thrilled to welcome Chip Kelly to Westwood," UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero said in a statement. "His success speaks for itself, but more than that, I firmly believe that his passion for the game and his innovative approach to coaching student-athletes make him the perfect fit for our program. 'Champions Made Here' is more than just a mantra at UCLA, and I'm confident that Chip will lead UCLA Football back to competing for championships. I'd like to thank Josh Rebholz, Casey Wasserman and Troy Aikman for their input during this process, as their candor, experience and support were invaluable."

Florida is now believed to be zeroing in on UCF second-year coach Scott Frost, who just completed an undefeated regular season with the Knights. 

Kelly has been working for ESPN as a college football analyst during the 2017 season following his one-year stop with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. Prior to that, Kelly went 26-21 with the Philadelphia Eagles over three years, a run highlighted by an NFC East title in 2013. 

"It is an absolute honor to join the Bruin Family, and I am grateful to Chancellor Block and to Dan Guerrero for this incredible opportunity," Kelly said in a statement. "UCLA is a world-class institution with a distinguished history in athletics, and we will do our part to uphold its tradition of excellence."

The college game knows Kelly for the massive success he had at Oregon. After arriving in 2007 as offensive coordinator, Kelly wasted no time making his mark on college football. His offenses ranked in the top 10 nationally in points per game each year he was in Eugene. Once promoted to head coach after Mike Bellotti became athletic director, he put together one of the most impressive four-year runs ever by a first-time major college football head coach. 

Kelly totaled a 46-7 record in his four years as Oregon's coach, winning three conference titles, reaching the BCS National Championship Game in 2010 and finishing in the top four of the final polls for three straight years (2010-12). 

But that tenure was not without controversy as the NCAA Committee on Infractions handed down penalties to the program in 2013 because of recruiting violations, including three years of probation and an 18-month show-cause penalty for Kelly. The show-cause penalty, which essentially requires any school to petition the NCAA prior to hiring the individual in question, expired for Kelly during his time with the Eagles.

Earlier this month, a report from 247Sports' Bruin Report Online stated that UCLA was pursuing Kelly after firing coach Jim Mora. UCLA owes Mora more than $12 million in buyout money, so the willingness to pay that money implied the program was trying to immediately upgrade its coach for a splash hire, which Kelly obviously would be.