UCLA's Chip Kelly took Oregon to new heights, but success didn't last in the NFL
EUGENE, Ore. - None of the proposed mantras made any sense.
Win the national championship? Oregon's football team was coming off a 7-6 season and had lost by 30 points to Brigham Young in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Win the Rose Bowl? The Ducks had not done that in nearly a century.
The team was certainly in need of some galvanizing in March 2007 as it held a brainstorming session at Camp Harlow, a wooded outpost north of campus. Coaches convened with players, equipment managers and trainers to seek solutions for the Ducks' malaise.
Players yelled at players. Players yelled at coaches. Coaches yelled back. No one seemed to know what to do.
"We were terminal, the whole team," said John Neal, the defensive backs coach.
As Neal sunk into his chair while listening to what seemed like increasingly absurd suggestions for a rallying cry, the new offensive coordinator sitting next to him made his pitch.
"Why don't we just win the day?" Chip Kelly offered.
The other coaches perked up. It was perfect. Instead of focusing on some faraway concept, "Win the day" provided a constant reminder of the steps needed to get there. No
