Oregon football coach Chip Kelly spent Thursday on the road in Southern California, where he made three home visits with Ducks recruits.

Which brings me to the biggest reason Kelly's record as a bowl-game coach is 0-1.

I don't think Kelly was outschemed in the

. I don't think the Ducks were out-muscled or lacked desire. I think the Buckeyes had the best player in the building that day -- Terrelle Pryor -- and that he won the game.

Oregon didn't really lose that Rose Bowl at the stadium. Or even in the previous calendar year. But rather, in the forgotten-about recruiting season in which Pryor chose Ohio State over Oregon.

is winning games today. He'll probably win more the rest of the week. And while there is bound to be plenty of talk about how playing for a national championship is raising Oregon's profile, increasing the number of freshman applications and increasing revenue and merchandising, the reality is Kelly is busy cashing in right now.

And he better if Oregon is going to avoid being a one-year wonder, if the Ducks are determined to stay around the top of college football. They'll do so with good coaching, and some fortune, but also by winning more of the ultra-important recruiting battles.

Kelly entered the home of a recruit at 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, and was still there after 6 p.m. Presumably, he was pitching the academics at Oregon, the facilities and answering questions from the recruit's parents as if he were Lord of the Living Room.

Hope Kelly had his best visor on.

Current

remembers having coaches Tyrone Willingham (Washington) and Mike Bellotti (Oregon) in back to back appointments. "They both kept talking about how much it rains at the other place," Davis said. "My parents asked a lot of questions."

And so Kelly, a guy who likes coaching more than he likes recruiting and dealing with the media, is faced with getting better at both or running the risk of meeting a recruit as an opponent in a future bowl game.

Kelly recruited quarterback Ryan Katz, now at Oregon State, once upon a time. He lost that bid, too. And don't think for a moment that the Ducks coach wasn't thinking about that as the Civil War approached. And so as we wait for the BCS Championship Game to be played, it's probably worth pointing out that Oregon is already scoring victories where it counts.

This isn't about the moral victories in a title run. But never before has a Ducks coach entered a living room where he could declare, "You can play for a national title at Oregon," without making the parents spit coffee through their noses.

Kelly can do that.

He can talk about playing back-to-back BCS games. He can talk about dreams that include a

. He can hold up his record as the only coach in Pacific-10 Conference history to go to a Rose Bowl in his rookie season as evidence that he hit the ground running, and then, his title game date with Auburn on Jan. 10 as the encore.

It's not accidental that Kelly is in Southern California, either. USC and UCLA are vulnerable for the first time in more than a decade. Neither feels like much of a destination, and Kelly can sell recruits in that region, straight-faced, on the idea that Oregon has the brightest future in the conference.

There's been a lot of talk in this Auburn-Oregon matchup of Cam Newton and the recruiting process that is causing the NCAA to take a longer look at the rules. And it's true that Newton, like Pryor a year ago, is the best player in this bowl game.

The Ducks will have to overcome that. They not only must have the better game plan and the better all-around performance, but they also must overcome a player who was so heralded that his own father shopped him for cash.

Think on that with Kelly in those living rooms, trading with the only currency he can use here -- proof of performance.

I don't know if that would have been enough to get Pryor or Newton.

But it feels like it's good enough to keep Oregon on top for a while.

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