Mark Helfrich said he reached out to former Ducks coach Chip Kelly a couple of weeks ago, when Helfrich thought he could be fired.

Helfrich reached out to Kelly in the interest of saving his assistants' jobs.

"When you start thinking of your assistants and all the support staff and all those people, if he were to come back here, some of those people would be 'saved,'" Helfrich said.

Helfrich was fired by Oregon on Tuesday after four seasons with the Ducks.

Kelly reiterated Wednesday that he intends to remain the coach of the San Francisco 49ers.