Mark Helfrich met the media today as Oregon's new head coach, and made a strong impression with his sincerity and enthusiasm for the job.

"This is the pinnacle for me," he said. Welcome words to an Oregon fan base and donor group after Chip Kelly's year-long flirtation with the NFL and double reverse departure this Wednesday. In the 39-year-old Helfrich the Ducks got an Oregon native whose father was a lifelong Duck fan, who met his wife while she attended school at UO, and whose family and friends have deep ties to the state and the Webfoot tradition.

 In your moments of great disappointment, you'll find who you are. Are you defeated or are you inspired?

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Chip Kelly was great until that awkward dance move at the end.

You can't fault anyone for pursuing a dream, but he could have exited in a more graceful manner.

A coach who built a 46-7 record with meticulous planning and bold execution pulled a clumsy zone read keeper in the end, negotiating with NFL teams over a long weekend after the Fiesta Bowl win, calling Sunday January 7 to assure Athletic Director Rob Mullens he was remaining as Ducks Coach, then cutting back against the grain to accept an offer from the Eagles today.

Oregon made a BCS bowl, and the opponent featured a veteran coach known for discipline and special teams. The visitors from the nation's heartland brought more fans, and their tall, physical quarterback and agile defensive line made them dangerous. They were a team that didn't turn the ball over much, rarely hurt themselves with penalties, and excelled in special teams and the kicking game.

Pregame, the talk was Oregon would dominate with their superior speed and blur-fast pace on offense.

But Ohio State won 26-17. The Buckeyes controlled the football while the Ducks made a couple of costly turnovers. Their beastly defensive line frustrated the Oregon running game. Rose Bowl MVP Terrelle Pryor gashed them for 266 yards passing and two touchdowns, and stiffarmed his way to a bruising 81 yards on the ground.

It was a gloomy week to be a Duck.

Rumors continue to swirl about Chip Kelly leaving for the NFL. Recruiting is stagnant and brackish, the Ducks pursuing 2-star linebackers and unrated defensive linemen as they've gathered the fewest commits in the conference. An 18-game starter on the offensive line and a former Honorable Mention on the PAC-12 All-Academic  team, Nick Cody inexplicably gets himself declared academically ineligible for the Fiesta Bowl.

Tuesday the Willamette Week, a free tabloid from downtown Portland that mainlines controversy like a heroin junkie, publishes a report full of unnamed sources stating long-time boosters are fed up with The Visor and ready to say good riddance.

From teamrankings.com, here's a list of the top ten teams in the NFL in yards per play offense:

Washington, San Francisco, Carolina and Seattle all deploy young mobile quarterbacks and the spread option, and New England is using the hurry-up tempo. Atlanta and New Orleans have their quarterback in the gun with a single back on most of their possessions.

Kelly is an innovative genius who will adapt his offensive scheme to his personnel. But the assertion that the Oregon offense won't work in the NFL is patently false. It already is. In fact, it's sweeping the NFL and revolutionizing the game. Coaches are idea whores. They voraciously borrow from each other and scavenge the past for anything that works.

Handsome, articulate, well-educated, athletically gifted and soon to be rich, a consensus All-American and the second-leading running back in school history, Kenjon Barner got snubbed in the balloting for the Doak Walker Award, just as Marcus Mariota will have a difficult time winning a Heisman Trophy. KB will probably get over it, and Oregon fans have to hope he'll console himself by earning the MVP Trophy in the Fiesta Bowl.

Johnny Manziel is a system quarterback. Montee Ball and Johnathan Franklin are system running backs. That's not a knock; it's simply the reality that every great college football player is in place because coaches felt that player fit their system and style of play, surround him with complementary players and offensive looks that enhance what they do best.

Etched against a lead-cold, carbon helmet grey November sky, the rumors flew like tracer fire, hell-bent on bringing to ground a twisted shard of truth.

Chip Kelly's a lock for the NFL.

He's already been in talks with the GM at Philadelphia.

Ex-Ducks Casey Matthews and Chad Peppars endorsed the Twitter scuttlebutt and then recanted. He is or he isn't. The rumors persist, largely and chiefly because Kelly's done nothing to dispel them.

If he WERE staying at Oregon, in spite of his penchant for playing his cards in the manner of voters in the New Hampshire primary, always coy with the media in the days leading up to the ballot, wouldn't it be in the best interest of the program and its recruiting fortunes to come out and sign an extension and declare his intention to remain in Eugene?