The old adage goes, where there is smoke, there is fire. That appears to be especially true in regards to Chip Kelly and the vacant Florida football head coach position.

Last Thursday, Marc Ryan of 98.7 FM in Tampa tweeted the following:

From a very reliable source. UF has reached out to representatives of Bob Stoops, Chip Kelly, and Charlie Strong to gauge interest in becoming the #Gators next head coach. These are believed to be UF’s top choices.

— Marc Ryan (@MarcRyanOnAir) November 9, 2017

This set off a firestorm of responses through the Twitter-verse, some favorable and some not so favorable. By Saturday morning, the Florida head coach prop bet had been taken off the books by all Las Vegas (and online) sports books.

Well, on Monday Darren Heitner of The Sports Agent Blog, tweeted that Chip Kelly is the leading candidate for the Florida job, stating that UF prefers a candidate without ties to agent Jimmy Sexton (Jim McElwain’s agent).

Confirmed that UF is looking at Chip Kelly as next head coach. Decision could be as soon as this week. Also heard that Florida was becoming very frustrated with Jimmy Sexton, who represents many other potential candidates. Chip is represented by David Dunn.

— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) November 13, 2017

If Heitner’s report is true, it appears that Florida will have a new head coach by the end of the week. Kelly would have the opportunity to start recruiting right away, giving Florida the chance to maintain a 2018 class that ranks #8 nationally.

Kelly went 46-7 at Oregon before being hired by the Philadelphia Eagles. Kelly is known for his up-tempo offense, something Florida fans would enjoy seeing employed in Gainesville.