Chip Kelly, Lovie Smith, Doug Marrone Interviews Confirmed By Buffalo Bills

Prior to today, the Buffalo Bills had confirmed just two interviews with head coaching candidates, announcing that they'd met with both Ken Whisenhunt and Ray Horton on Wednesday. After a long period of dormancy (relatively speaking), the Bills have confirmed three more interviews, all of which took place on Friday.

Lovie Smith, Doug Marrone and Chip Kelly were all interviewed by Buffalo's search committee (Russ Brandon, Buddy Nix, Doug Whaley and Jim Overdorf) on Friday. That means that the Bills have now interviewed five of the six coaches that they've been reported to have scheduled interviews with; only Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, scheduled to interview tomorrow in Denver, remains.

Kelly, the Oregon Ducks head coach, was reported to have a deal in place to become the head coach of the Cleveland Browns earlier on Friday evening. He is still meeting with both Buffalo and the Philadelphia Eagles, however, and knocked Buffalo off of the list following seven hours' worth of meetings with Cleveland.

Marrone has been the head coach at Syracuse Orange for the last four years after spending seven years as an assistant coach in the NFL - first with the New York Jets (offensive line coach), then with New Orleans (offensive coordinator). Smith, of course, was the head coach of the Chicago Bears for nine seasons; he was fired on Monday after missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons, despite sporting an 83-61 overall record in his stint.

Five interviews are down for the Bills, and there's at least one to go. Unless the team has more planned after their trip out west, there's a chance that the breakneck pace of the interview process could yield a new coach (early?) next week.