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A changed Chad Kelly changed Ole Miss football for the better in short time
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Chad Kelly needed a rewrite. At Ole Miss, he rewrote much more than his own story.
Ole Miss’ senior quarterback saw his college football career come to an abrupt and unceremonious ending Saturday against Georgia Southern. Kelly tore his ACL and lateral meniscus, and he was officially called done for the season on Sunday.
“Chad came here wanting to rewrite his story, and I have witnessed him do that to a large extent,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “It’s not the ending we wanted. It’s not the last chapter we wanted to write, but life has a way of doing that.”
Kelly was dismissed from Clemson in 2014 for detrimental conduct. In Dec. 2014, he was arrested outside a Buffalo nightclub amid a brawl and alleged gun threats.
Between then and this season’s 2,758 yards, 19 TDs and 8 INTs, Kelly is the same touted quarterback but a totally different human.
He rushed for 332 yards and 5 more touchdowns this season and ends his career ranked third in Ole Miss history in passing yards, passing touchdowns and total offense along with being fourth in completions.
His two-year stats are massive. In 22 games, Kelly threw for 6,800 yards, rushed for 832 and accounted for 65 touchdowns.
His rushing this season came many times on gutsy instinct. Behind a patchwork offensive line full of injuries of its own, Kelly often had to take off. He never shied from it despite the fear of coaches and fans that this very thing could happen. But Kelly, maybe to a fault, has guts as big as his arm.
Ironically, it happened in the pocket.
But from that pocket, Kelly vaulted Ole Miss into the national spotlight. He threw for 4,042 yards and 31 touchdowns as a junior. He was the first Rebel to be named Sugar Bowl MVP since Archie Manning did so in 1970.
Ole Miss had some momentum before Kelly, three straight bowl games since the hiring of Freeze. But the Sugar Bowl and the bevy of offensive talent Ole Miss has been able to recruit has to be credited in many ways to Kelly showing the potential of Freeze’s system and the potential of Ole Miss to perform on the national stage with Alabama.
He finished his junior season atop the SEC in passing and in the top 10 in the nation in passing, total offense and points responsible for. His senior season was nothing short of phenomenal either.
It matters who Ole Miss will play at quarterback for the next three games, but in a season that hasn’t gone close to where fans thought it would, what matters more at the moment is the celebration of a quarterback who came troubled, turned it around and gave defenses trouble. Comments poured in from Ole Miss fans and former players indebted to Kelly for his contributions.
Kelly put himself in the spotlight with negative things at times, this season caught in an exposed Twitter back-and-forth with a porn star.
But he credited God with getting his life back on track and was part of a team mission trip to Haiti last spring break, the good far outweighing the bad.
“I’ve watched him. I’ve been with him daily, and he’s changed for the better,” Freeze said. “We all still have challenges in life. We all still have those things that haunt us. We all do. I’ve watched him do things, make impacts on people.”
