Lowell Cohn: 49ers coach Chip Kelly's biggest challenge is learning from Philly failure

With 49ers training camp coming up soon, it’s important to discuss Chip Kelly. What do we make of him? Expect of him?

He is a controversial figure. Not a bad thing. The Niners need healthy controversy and they need pizzazz. They had no pizzazz under Jim “The Butcher” Tomsula. Unlike Tomsula, Kelly is a real head football coach with a real philosophy and a real coaching staff. All good things.

His first season in Philadelphia, 2013, he turned a 4-12 team into a 10-6 team. His Eagles made the playoffs. He converted quarterback Nick Foles from a nobody into quite a somebody. Kelly’s first Philadelphia season was spectacular. Some people thought he would be just another college coach who’d flunk out in the NFL. But he made the Dean’s List.

His hurry-up offense was revolutionary. And he was a phenomenon. Except he didn’t make the playoffs the next two seasons and the Eagles - some players and ownership - grew weary of him. He had trouble getting along with star players - an issue he won’t face with the Niners considering their lack of stars. And the Eagles fired him before last season ended.

Ran him out of town. If the Niners, desperate in their own right, had not stepped forward and hired him when no one else wanted him, he’d be back in college right now. Or unemployed.

He is a risk hire for the 49ers and a controversial hire. And the niggling worry exists that the league caught up to him. That his offense is a gimmick. Give NFL defensive coordinators time studying a gimmick and they will eliminate the gimmick. Crush it. Remember Greg Roman’s Diamond Formation. You probably already forgot it. The league sure did.

And then there’s Kelly’s defense. You know the criticism. His offense gets off the field so fast after a quick score or a quick three-and-out. His defensive players barely have time for a gulp of Gatorade. They’re back on the field sucking air, not to mention just plain sucking. And they barely can defend. And whatever Kelly gains on offense, he gives back on defense. Every year in Philly, his defense ranked near the bottom.

Controversial.

OK, so that’s what we already know. We also know Kelly is a serious student of football who is committed to his ideas, especially on offense. He is intelligent and persuasive and, yes, impressive in his way. He is calm and detached and knows diet and hydration and the latest training methods, and he has a coach’s demeanor. For a contrast, see The Butcher.

Kelly is the first 49ers coach in a long time who will try to be interesting and exciting on offense. He is more exciting than Jim Harbaugh, who ran a combo of the Chicago Bears offense from the 1980s and the University of Michigan offense from the 1970s.

I am not putting down Harbaugh. Harbaugh is a way better coach than Kelly until further notice. Harbaugh is a flat-out great coach. But his offense didn’t dazzle. It knocked opponents on their butts. It was a power offense and a simple offense. A basic offense. It was not a beautiful, stunning, innovative offense.

Kelly’s offense is - could be - beautiful, stunning and innovative. Kelly aspires to be cutting edge. He has the potential. The 49ers have not had a cutting-edge head coach since Bill Walsh.

Now we come to Kelly’s character. I wish I knew something about it but I don’t. Not first hand. He seems shy and has given no one-on-one interviews - unusual in a first-year coach. He let it be known ixnay on the interviews. So, I haven’t asked, although my son Grant, who covers the Niners for PressDemocrat.com, asked and got a polite no from Niners public relations.

Kelly has a choice which will illustrate his character. Define his character more than any one-on-one interview ever could.

He can choose to double-down on his past strategies. Run exactly the same offense and defense that succeeded in Philly until they didn’t succeed in Philly.

He can be a hardhead. He can set out to prove the league was wrong about him. To prove every expert wrong. To prove his point. To show he’s a smart guy - smarter than everyone else. The smartest guy on the field. He can come off misunderstood and put upon. He can act like a man who learned nothing. A man doomed to repeat himself to the bitter end.

This would be a losing strategy. A losing approach to football and life. Repeat every step that got you axed.

Or he can show he learned. Did the hard, painful, honest work of self-diagnosis. He can admit to himself in the darkness of his office with the shades drawn and the projector humming - maybe he uses a computer screen - that what he previously did ultimately failed. That there is no shame in that. The deepest wisdom often comes from failure.

He can adjust his offense however he needs to adjust it. He can be kind to his defense. Give it a break. Let it perform as it needs to perform. If he has been haughty - that’s what we’ve read - he can learn humility. Real humility. Not to make himself subservient to players. But open to new ideas. Good ideas. Ideas that may not even be his own.

If Kelly succeeds with the Niners, he will succeed partly because he has a good play book. He’ll also succeed if he’s a good guy, the right kind of guy. The guy he needs to be.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at ell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.