It was nearly three months ago, coming off a lifeless 17-7 home loss to last-place and shorthanded Arizona State, when things started to turn against UCLA head coach Chip Kelly.

It appeared to be the ripe opportunity to get a head start on a coaching change that only looked inevitable, even despite a 38-20 win the following week against one of the nation’s worst defenses in rival USC.

Instead, the hesitation quickly cost UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond a worthy potential candidate in Jonathan Smith, who left Oregon State to become the head coach at Michigan State and kicked off the coaching carousel across the country.

Hours later, Kelly watched a season’s worth of issues pile up in the opening half of a 33-7 loss to California in the Nov. 25 regular-season finale.

An LA Bowl win over Boise State — the first and only bowl victory in Kelly’s tenure — and a shuffle of assistants appeared to signal an improbable seventh season despite a 35-34 record in Westwood.

Instead, it was Kelly who looked for an exit and flirted with a return to the NFL before accepting a job Friday to be Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman.

Timing is everything in the college football arms race, as failing to fire Kelly late or at the end of the regular season cost the program the opportunity to conduct a national search with a wealth of candidates.

Additionally, as Kelly flirted with NFL teams, Bruins running backs coach DeShaun Foster beat him to the punch last Friday by leaving for the Las Vegas Raiders’ running backs coach job.