Chip Kelly was a reluctant genius in recruiting. He had a knack for connecting with kids, but it was a part of the job he didn't have an abiding love for. Though he put together two very solid recruiting classes and a spectacular one that included De'Anthony Thomas, he had a "we'll win with you or without you" approach that succeeded in landing athletes of character and commitment (every athlete he recruited qualified academically and enrolled in school, a phenomenal achievement) but missed out in the battles for some of the nation's top targets.

Recruiting matters. Alabama has had rivals.com's number one recruiting class ranking the last three seasons in a row, and they've won three of the last four national championships. This season they're in the running for three quarters of the nation's Top 50 prospects. It's a powerful synergy, being number one and relentless.

Karl Marx would have loved running back by committee. Newly installed in his first head coaching job at Socialist University, he would have installed Friedrich Engels as commissioner of running backs, set a quota for production and declared to the eager press, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Carries would be distributed by a seniority system. In the first year Socialist U. would average 3.3 per rush and go 5-6. The fans and bloggers howling for his dismissal, Marx would hold a hasty press conference and insist SU was evolving into a running back utopia, that he had a 5-year plan for success.

Niccolo Machiavelli, however, the long-time head man at rival Prince Town University, disdained committees. He would want a strong leader to emerge from his running backs, a star who would appear to be a team player and unselfish, while having the cunning and inner will to grasp greatness.

The concept wasn't novel but the execution was flawless.

Chip Kelly did many things extremely well in his first head coaching job, but foremost among them was his masterful job of selling his players and Duck fans on his methods and philosophy.

Central to that was "next man up," the idea that if a player went down or was lost to the program in some way, the next guy had to step in and do the job. The younger player was talented and prepared, and the coach created the expectation that the team would continue with the same energy and confidence.

This is the honeymoon period, the era of good feeling before the endless scrutiny and potential fan mutiny. When it passes, all Mark Helfrich has to do to be considered a success is average 50 points a game, win 90% of his games and a National Championship. Renaud Lavillenie himself wouldn't set the bar this high, but Helf is on the runway, blowing out two breaths and rocking into his rhythm, getting ready to plant and fly.

He thinks he can do it. You have to admire a man who optimistically sets out to succeed a genius. Chip Kelly went 46-7, earned four BCS bowl trips and a UPS commercial, but now the former Southern Oregon quarterback has to display el gigante cojones of his own. Pop quiz hotshot: it's fourth and one at your own 35, the NCAA is on line one, and Kenjon Barner is preparing for the NFL combine. What do you do?

Photo right: Mark Helfrich greeted Oregon fans and the media with enthusiasm, sincerity, laid-back Northwest humor and cordiality, but to keep them won over, he has to win (usatoday.com photo).

Michael Clay, Dion Jordan and Kiko Alonso are now alums. The backbone of a defense that went 46-7 with four trips to the BCS, striking last year for 26 interceptions and 28 sacks, they've moved on to NFL tryouts and the rest of their lives. 

That means Nick Aliotti and Don Pellum have to replace the soul and leadership of a superb unit. It also means they have to replace 226 tackles this season. That's a lot of hits to replace in the middle of the lineup. Some will come from Derrick Malone and Tyson Coleman, touted recruits from the 2010 class who are now juniors. They got a ton of time over the last two years in the rotation and on special teams. Now they have a spring and a summer to prove they're ready to replace legends who stood and delivered in the greatest era of Oregon football.

“Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?”

                                    --a line used in speeches often by Robert Kennedy, originally from a play by George Bernard Shaw

Signing Day is a why not kind of day. A day for optimism and dreams, lofty thank you speeches and bold predictions, like high school graduations or weddings, or the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new highway.

As humans, we need those kind of days. They lift the gloom and remind us to hold to our hopes. They remind us of the best that is in us and reaffirm the power of goals and commitment. As sports fans, days like the draft and pitchers and catchers reporting and signing day have a special magic. Chip Kelly once said, "every year you kind of get reborn." On Signing Day and the opening of spring practice or fall camp, every team has hope and possibility, the kind of fresh start you get when you open the boxes for the first time in a new home in a new town, or throw out old attitudes and bad habits.

Driven by ESPN, the internet and mushrooming scouting services and recruiting sites, the hype and hoopla around National Signing Day grows every year. The hat ceremonies and gushing predictions of stardom indicate just how big a business college football has become, grown to a riot of glorious excess to rival Super Bowl Media Day.

All over where some uber-talented teenagers decide to go to school, forgetting that several dozen of them will flame out, change their minds or disappear in a season or so. Anyone remember Diante Jackson and Tyrece Gaines? How about Tacoi Sumler and Devon Blackmon? Duck fans, and this website, were giddy about these 4-star wunderkinds when they faxed letters of intent in Februarys past, but each saw their shadow and scurried back home after a season or two of the Oregon winter.

photo left: Enthusiastic Duck fans will have a fresh crop of heroes to root for after National Signing Day on Wednesday. And the Spring Game is just 12 weeks away.

In Mark Helfrich, 39, Scott Frost 38, and Matt Lubick, 41, Oregon football has gained an infusion of youth and energy at the core of its leadership. It's already paying dividends with the recent commit of Devon Allen, strong interest by offensive lineman Cameron Hunt, and renewed enthusiasm from verbal commits Thomas Tyner and the Robinson twins.

Helfrich and his staff moved quickly to refocus on recruiting after Kelly's departure, and they should close strong. Lubick has a deserved reputation as a dynamite recruiter and a master of the passing offense and receiving fundamentals, footballscoop.com's receiving coach of the year in 2012. Duke made three bowls while Lubick was there, and last season his wide receivers paced the team, the tandem of Conner Vernon, Jamison Crowder and Desmond Scott combining for 2,686 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Imagine the Oregon offense, already formidable at number two in the country, with that kind of productivity at wideout. 

In his previous stops Lubick pulled down recruiting commitments from future stars like Dexter McCluster and Vontaze Burfict. He's a star salesman who relates well to players and is extremely thorough in teaching the fundamentals of the receiver position. He should do wonders with Chance Allen, Dwayne Sanford, Devon Allen, B.J. Kelley, Bralon Addison, Keanon Lowe, Eric Dungey, Daryle Hawkins, Will Murphy, De'Anthony Thomas and Josh Huff.

If Oregon is going to make their recent run of success stick, and reach the next level with a national championship and another batch of PAC-12 crowns, decisive moves like the promotions of Helfrich and Frost and the hiring of Lubick will pave the way. Perhaps the Ducks CAN replace Chip Kelly and keep growing. Phil Knight was the architect of Oregon's rise from mediocrity, and Greatwood, Alliotti, Pellum, Radcliffe, Campbell and Radcliffe were the crack construction crew. This last week they've added some master craftsmen to contribute to a new phase of development.