Coach Chip Kelly said his late father was so “loyal” to his son that he was buried Tuesday wearing a 49ers sweatsuit.

“My dad’s loyal, now. He knows where his son is at,” Kelly said Wednesday, having attended his father’s funeral the previous day in Portland, Maine. “He actually got buried in 49ers gear.

“He did not want to wear a suit in his coffin. He wore a suit his entire career as a trial lawyer. He wanted to wear a 49ers sweatsuit and he did that when he passed away.”

Paul Kelly passed away from an apparent heart attack last Friday at age 87. Chip Kelly, the third of four sons, proudly and somewhat emotionally spoke of his father’s ideals about life, knowledge, commitment and humor.

“I don’t have any sense of humor compared to my dad. He was special in that manner,” Chip Kelly said. “He just had a zest for life and was one of the happiest people you ever met. He really just enjoyed what he did. He was a lifelong lawyer. He had a thirst for knowledge, insatiable appetite for information and was just always fun to be around.”

His father’s sense of commitment carried over from one generation to the next, as evident by how his son explained his determination to stick with a 49ers tenure that is off to a 1-11 start.

Although Kelly signed a four-year contract in January, rumors have swirled over the past month or more that he might return to the University of Oregon, where he coached before leaving for the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013. Kelly said he never discussed a potential return to an Oregon job that instead went Wednesday to Willie Taggart, who’s left the University of South Florida and has close ties with former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, Taggart’s best man when he got married.

“With all those questions, and hopefully this is the end of it for me, I will never leave my job for another job while the season is going on,” Kelly said. “I don’t think that’s fair. I didn’t do it while in college. I never talked to anybody in the National Football League until after our bowl game was over. In the NFL, they have a great rule: you’re not allowed to leave your job; if you’re in the playoffs, you can’t go (interview) until your season is done. It’s tough with the cycle that goes on in college.

“When I’ve said I’m not going to go back to college, there’s never going to be an opportunity for me to go back to college, because I have a job.”

Kelly asked reporters if any NFL coach has ever left during a season to coach in college, and when told of Bobby Petrino’s desertion from the Atlanta Falcons during the 2007 season with a 3-10 record, Kelly asked for other examples.

“I will not leave a team with three games to go because I got a bigger and better deal somewhere, because that’s not the way I’m wired and that’s not what I would ever do,” Kelly said. “I could never look (49ers veterans) Antoine Bethea or Joe Staley in the face again, and talk to them about commitment, and then if I was the guy that had a job offer that I thought that was better than the one I had, and I took off with three games to go, that’s just not the way I’m wired. Some guys do it. I would never do it.”

Was he offered the Oregon job?

“Nope,” Kelly responded. “Everybody knows, if you want to contact me, there is no contact. I’m not talking to anybody about another job. I have a job. That’s one thing I did learn from my dad: they made a commitment to me, and I made a commitment to them, and I’m not searching around looking for another job when I have a job. I have a job to take care of.”

That currently entails trying to end a franchise-record 11-game losing streak, which was extended Sunday with a 26-6 defeat in Chicago. Kelly coached the game after taking the York-family plane to be with his family in Maine Friday and Saturday, then returning after the game for his father’s funeral.

While away from the team, Kelly remained in touch with his staff and concluded Monday to have Colin Kaepernick make an eighth consecutive start. Kaeprenick got benched after completing 1 of 5 passes for four yards through three quarters in Chicago.

“We believe Kap gives us the best chance to win this week, so we’re excited to go play the Jets with Kap,” Kelly said of Sunday’s upcoming opponent at Levi’s Stadium.

Once Kelly headed out to the practice field Wednesday, running backs Shaun Draughn and DuJuan Harris were the first of several players who hugged their grieving coach.

Kelly had just concluded his media briefing by explaining why he was so adamant about remaining in his current role:

“The reason is this: I’ve always felt that the reporters that covered me were so intelligent that they would understand what I was saying,” Kelly said coyly. “So then I learned it was probably my fault for not telling the exact point: I would never leave my job, I never have in the past, and I’m not going to leave my job if I still have games to coach. That’s what my deal is. I have a commitment, and I learned that from my father.”

His father’s obituary, which ran in the Portland Press Herald, noted Paul Kelly’s four family rules: “1. Have fun. 2. Stick together.3. Love mom. 4. &%$*# dad.” It also mentioned how he was a “truly devoted San Francisco 49ers fan.” Indeed, he was.

Coaching the 49ers while mourning his father’s loss isn’t easy.

“It’s difficult but I’m not the first person to lose a loved one,” Kelly said. “It’s an unfortunate part of everybody’s life. When I talked to our players about it on Saturday, there were so many players on our team that have lost loved ones. (Wide receivers) Jeremy Kerley lost a brother (and) Torrey Smith lost a brother. I spent some time with them and talked to them about how they dealt with it.

“It’s something that affects all of us. I don’t think you can ever be prepared for it. I know it’s really the first impactful one in my life. All my brothers are alive, and my mom. It was the first close one to me. It was hard. How you honor them is to move on and think about the good times and gain strength from it.”