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Saturday's Pac-12 meeting No. 9 UCLA and No. 10 Oregon will mark a reunion of sorts for Bruins coach Chip Kelly.The fifth-year UCLA coach is making just his third return to Eugene, Ore., since he left the Ducks' program to coach in the NFL following the 2012 college football season. His decision followed a two-year stint as the team's offensive coordinator, followed by a four-year stint as head coach a period widely considered the greatest stretch in program Colorado Avalanche Jersey history.This isn't the first time Kelly has coached against his former program, however. Since returning to college football, he has coached against the Ducks three times, including twice on the road, as head coach of UCLA. Each of those resulted in a lo s for the Bruins.But none of those games had quite the stakes of Saturday's game, which will have implications not only on the Pac-12 race, but also the College Football Playoff. Whether Kelly can finally clear the hurdle over his former program remains to be seen.MORE: With that, The Sporting News explores why Kelly chose to leave Oregon, and why he returned to the Pac-12 to coach UCLA: Kelly, as so many college coaches before him, was enticed by the prospect of enjoying similar succe s in the NFL.Per a , Kelly met with three NFL teams following the conclusion of the 2012 football season: the Bills, Browns and Eagles. He reportedly told Oregon he would return to Eugene; he signed with the Eagles nine Carl Soderberg Jersey days later, on Jan. 16, 2013.Kelly, speaking to Eugene's KEZI-TV, said he waited to make the decision because of his attachment to the people in the program. Via NBC Sports:"It took so long to make it just because the people here are special," Kelly said. "The challenge obviously is exciting for me, but it's an exciting time (and) it's a sad time saying goodbye to people you love and respect, and I wanted to make sure I talked to my players and did it in the right fashion and talked to our staff. I feel like I did.''He ultimately decided to test his offensive prowe s at the NFL level, which featured an even greater talent pool and players more capable of running his speed-based offense (which also included the idea of a dual-threat quarterback running a zone-read offense with elements of a spread offense pa sing game).MORE: That said, Kelly's decision did not catch Oregon completely unawares: The Ducks had already begun the proce s of looking for Kelly's replacement since they were aware he had spoken to several NFL teams. They shut the search down when Kelly indicated he would stay, but picked it back up again following his departure."We had already done a lot of groundwork, we had already started the proce s, knowing that Chip was going to be talking to the Eagles, Bills and Browns," Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said at the time. "We had geared up our proce Francois Beauchemin Jersey s. We had obviously shut it down, but it's easy to click right back on.''Again, the Ducks went with an internal candidate to replace the previous coach: Mark Helfrich, Oregon's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Kelly from 2009 through 2012.Kelly's jump from Oregon to the NFL also coincided with impending NCAA infractions stemming from a 2011 report that indicated Oregon made impermi sible payments to recruiting services, including $25,000 to two such services in 2010.In June 2013 six months after Kelly left Oregon the NCAA imposed a for recruiting violations, and an 18-month show-cause order for Kelly. The NCAA also accepted Oregon's self-imposed penalties of signing one fewer player per cla s Erik Johnson Jersey and having one fewer scholarship player for the next three years.Oregon was not hit with a significant scholarship reduction and did not have a postseason ban. Kelly is coaching at UCLA in part because he was unable to replicate his succe s in Oregon at the NFL level.It at first appeared as if his offensive schemes would overrun the NFL as he led the Eagles to a 10-6 record in each of his first two seasons in 2013 and '14. The former season saw a first-round exit in the NFC playoffs, while Philadelphia did not make the postseason in 2014.NFL defenses finally caught up to Kelly's offense in his third season, resulting in a 6-9 record. He was fired before the end of the season, and was immediately considered a coaching candidate for several NFL head coaching vacancies.Kelly had an even shorter tenure at his next stop, leading the 49ers to a 2-14 record in 2016. He was fired at the end of the season and took a year off from coaching in 2017.He ultimately returned to UCLA in 2018 as the school's top choice to replace Jim Mora. The school offered him a five-year, $23.3 million contract and offered him a chance to step back into familiar settings and proximity to Oregon recruiting grounds. Moreover, Kelly had more ease of acce Tyson Jost Jersey s to the Los Angeles recruiting area, one of the most talent-rich cities in the country.TSN ARCHIVES:Finally, Kelly did not feel the need to rebuild UCLA from the ground up:I think if youve been around long enough, you can trust your gut, he said at an introductory news conference. And maybe it makes you go back and look at your values and vision, and do they match? And I think I was fortunate that I didnt have to take a job, but if I was going to take a job, it was going to be the right job."And I think sometimes your hubris can probably get the best of you, and (youll) say, Well Ill go there and Ill just change everything. Where sometimes its a lot easier when everybody is already rowing the boat in the right direction.Kelly went 10-21 in three seasons before turning things around in Year 4, a season in which the Bruins went 8-4. Kelly's fifth season started with a 6-0 record, the program's first since 2005. Kelly's tenure at Oregon is considered one of the best four-year stretches in Calvin Pickard Jersey program history. He has the fourth-most victories in Oregon football history, with a four-year record of 46-7 a stretch in which he averaged 11 1/2 wins a season.He trails only three coaches in program history in terms of wins:CoachRecordWin percentageYears coachedMike Bellotti116-55.6781995-2008Rich Brooks91-109-4.4461977-1994Len Casanova82-73-8.5031951-66Chip Kelly46-7.8672009-12He also claims the highest win percentage (.867) of any Oregon coach with more than one season on the job. Moreover, he is tied with Bellotti as having the most double-digit win seasons in Oregon history (four) and is the only coach to have at least 10 wins in every season he coached in Eugene.His tenure includes three straight Pac-12 titles (and a co-division title in 2012), a berth in the 2011 BCS championship game and a 2-2 record in four straight BCS bowl games. The Ducks were ranked every season under Kelly, including three straight seasons with top-five finishes.Kelly's year-by-year record at Oregon:YearRecordFinal AP rankBowl (result)2009*10-311Rose Bowl (lo s)2010*12-13BCS championship (lo s)2011*12-24Rose B