Why push Mike Bellotti out the door?
After the Holiday Bowl there seemed to be a lot of speculation about Mike Bellotti having coached his final game at Oregon. It almost, to me, seemed to take on the proportions of wishful thinking. Sort of, “Good job, Coach — now, here’s your hat and coat, drive carefully into the sunset.”
Part of the problem with coaches is the same as it is with sports columnists — if you stay in one spot for a long time, it just gives you time to offend more people. You wake up at some point and realize that over time, you’ve offended just about everybody with SOMETHING you’ve done, said or written over the years. Sometimes those people just never forget. But in both cases they need to reflect back on the body of work.
My goodness, people — wake up! This guy has been a huge figure in Oregon football history and, like him or not, has been one of the best college football coaches in the country for years. And you want to hasten his departure?
I don’t think I’d be so anxious to show him the door. You’ve got a head coach in waiting, yes. An offensive coach. He looks promising as a successor but I’m not sure being the head coach at the University of New Hampshire for a few years means you’re going to set the Pac-10 on fire. The thing about elevating assistants to the big job is that you’re never sure what will happen when the buck stops at their desk. Responsibility changes people.
I’m not saying that Chip Kelly isn’t going to be a fine head coach (although I’m entirely unconvinced he’d be better than Boise State’s Chris Peterson). What I’m saying is, there’s an element of mystery there. Can he recruit and do it without landing on probation? Will he stay relatively free of scandal by running a clean program? Can he deal with the media and alumni responsibilities that come with a Pac-10 job? With Bellotti there is no doubt about any of that. He’s first class. Solid — one of the best around. Man, I’d be encouraging him to hang around as long as he wants.
And if I were Bellotti, I’d sure not be in any hurry to become the school’s athletic director. Ugh — that job has a big element of drudgery to it. It’s becoming the job for an accountant who can hustle money out of the wallets of well-meaning boosters — which doesn’t sound like fun to me. And Bellotti is going to miss having the contact with the athletes.
Think hard about this job change, Coach. And for those out there encouraging him to leave, be careful what you wish for.
Coaches, College football, Oregon Ducks | Dwight Jaynes | January 1, 2009
Chip Kelly, College football, Dwight Jaynes, Mike Bellotti, Oregon Ducks
Funny you liken Bellotti’s situation to a sports columnists, as they seem to be the only people really craving a change.
Just wanted to let you know that Chip Kelly was never the head coach at UNH. From what I’ve read in the Oregon media, there seems to be some confusion about this. Happy New Year!
I wouldn’t mind keeping mike. Nick needs to go. I know the second half of the game was impressive but I am still not sold.
His style of defense really puts a lot of pressure on the Ducks offense to score a lot. The defensive blitz schemes that I saw, for instance, how many times does he have the corner from the far side blitz…the far side! The defense is also out on the field for long stretches because of the bend but don’t break philosophy. I was ok with that early on in his tenure because we didn’t have the greatest athletes, but we really have some athletic players in the program now. Keep Mike, can Nick.
I am all for it, dump Belotti for an unproven head coach good move for my Beavs.
Canzano gets so dramatic.
this is plain dumb [that means u canzano]
Mike is coming back with the best RB and QB in the Pac-10 , and a real shot at a
national title. Stay Mike Stay , oh and
jeez beavs , 3 points , is that it…
There is only one decision maker in Quackland…. Its Uncle Phil….
I tend to agree with you Mr Jaynes. I think too many coaches tend to think that they have to leave on a high note in order to protect their legacy, which when you think about it, who cares about the Legacy? Coach Bellotti should only leave if he himself wants a change. Dee Andros stepped to AD partly because the programming was sliding, & boy did it go a long way before the slide stopped. Coach Bellotti is not at that place by a long shot! I think the successor arrangement with Coach Kelly is a good one, & it sounds as if Bellotti is easing Kelly into responsibility in a wise fashion. However, if I were a friend of Coach Bellotti, I would caution ihm to only do what he wants to do. He has elevated the program to a place it has never been, and the future looks bright!
I think it’s more of Bellotti knowing full well that he’s leaving soon after the recruiting season, and by his own accord.
Why announce that certain members of the coaching staff won’t be asked back, if you knew that you WERE coming back yourself? For example, Gray has been with the program for nearly 20 years, and is a good recruiter. He would continue to stay, if Bellotti was staying on as head coach, in my opinion. But instead, he’s been shown the door. Therefore, to me, it’s a sign of changes to come… sooner, rather than later.
I enjoy your insight, Dwight. On this blog, and on KPTV.
Hey Edwardo–Dee Andros stepped down because the program was slipping, the team was lousy, and he was about to be fired! He resigned so he wouldn’t be fired, and he was then promoted to AD.
I was at OSU then. Many, many people were upset that Andros was seemingly promoted for doing such a lousy job as coach and starting the downward slide of the program after suceeding Tommy Prothro.
Not everyone thinks Dee Andros was a great coach. He coasted on Prothro’s coattails, and with Prothro’s recruits, for a few years until the downward spiral began.
I agree that it seems most of the impetus for change comes from the media, and not just newspapers. But there seems to be the feeling in the media that the only way to drive interest and ratings or readership is by being as controversial as possible. Saying that, there also seems to be a ridiculous standard for MB that he seems to have created himself by being so successful. Personally it seems to gotten away from a focus on being a good program to garnering national attention that only a BCS game and especially a National Championship game can give. This seems to be the same problem Ernie Kent has created for himself as well.
As far as I am concerned both the the football and basketball coaches should be able to coach here as long as they like, as long as they maintain the same ethical standards in their program.
I was at OSC when Prothro was. Dee Andros was a lovable guy, but a poor coach. They should have fired him. OK to let him try AD I guess but he continued to not do the job. Every Beaver sport went downhill. Basketball waited til Ralph Miller retired to head down.
I have always admired Paul Valenti who took over when Slats Gill left and realized he was not doing job and quit.
woops off subject
Hey I guess I started a whole new train of thought with the Dee Andros comment. It’s pretty much a given that Dee Andros’ “Giant Killer” handle actually was all set up by Tommy Prothro. In other words, Coach Prothro filled the gas tank, then handed the keys to Andros. Andros drove the car till it ran out of gas then called the tow-truck. The evidence of the sliding program was proof of that in the end.
I just have one question for Coach Bellotti. Will he really be satisfied with the upcoming arrangement? Or will he all of a sudden wake up in 2 years and do the Brent Favre move & get back into coaching somewhere else because he is still a coach but needed a real vacation? Or is he truly ready for a change long-term? Only time will tell.
OK, here’s how I see it. Belloti would like to be the AD sometime in the next few years. Unfortunately, Kilkenny’s leaving within a year whether Belloti stays at HC or not. If the Ducks have to hire a new AD other than Belloti, Belloti’s out of luck getting the AD job anytime soon. Hence, he’s decided to take the AD position while it’s available without losing CK, because believe me, CK was as good as gone to Syracuse had the deal not been cut.
I do share Edwardo’s hunch that Belloti may wake up in a couple years and decide that he actually misses the coaching gig. When that time comes there’ll be plenty of takers.
Who is Brent Favre? Is that Brett’s brother?
Like to know how many coaches have made good ADs. Again good for Beavs.
would hope that Ducks can decide they do not need a baseball team when Kilkenny leaves. what an in your face move by ducks aginst beavs. Beavs did well when they got all the good instate players, now that we are competing for them. Beavs likely will head down.
Those two National championships were mostly with local kids and an Irishman for coach.