Coach Profile: Mike Bellotti

(Editor Note: After sleeping on the news, I'm a little less bullish on Bellotti)

Wowza! Fresh off the press is a profile of the current Ducks head coach Mike Bellotti. Don't know much about him? Read on...

Background

Robert Michael Bellotti is 57 years old. He played his college ball back in the early 70's at UC Davis. Soon after Mike started his coaching career. He was a Junior Varsity coach (back in the days when they still had JV college teams) before jumping to the Varsity level in 1977 at Cal State Hayward.

After a stint as an OC at Hayward, Bellotti took the head coaching spot at Chico State (which no longer has a football program). In 1989 he took the job as the offensive coordinator at Oregon. After five seasons he was given the head coaching position and he has spent the last 12 seasons as the Ducks head coach.

Bellotti's current salary is a little over $1 million.

College Head Coaching Record

Year	Team	Overall	Bowl
Chico State () (1984 — 1988)
1984	Chico State	4-5-1
1985	Chico State	5-4-1
1986	Chico State	7-3
1987	Chico State	4-6
1988	Chico State	3-7
Oregon (PAC-10 Conference) (1995 — present)
1995	Oregon	9-3	Cotton (L)
1996	Oregon	6-5
1997	Oregon	7-5	Las Vegas (W)
1998	Oregon	8-4	Aloha (L)
1999	Oregon	9-3	Sun (W)
2000	Oregon	10-2	Holiday (W)
2001	Oregon	11-1	Fiesta (W)
2002	Oregon	7-6	Seattle (L)
2003	Oregon	8-5	Sun (L)
2004	Oregon	5-6
2005	Oregon	10-2	Holiday (L)
2006	Oregon	7-6	Las Vegas (L)
2007	Oregon	8-4	Sun
Oregon:		105-50
Total:		126-77-2
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season.

Positives

Bellotti has a wealth of college coaching experience. Of all the coaches mentioned, only his mentor Rich Brooks had more. All of that experience comes on the West Coast and he has spent almost two decades in the PAC-10 as an assistant and head coach.

He has won two PAC-10 conference championships this decade and put together a sensational 2001 campaign that saw the Ducks finish #2 in the country. He has taken Oregon to 9 bowls in the last 11 years. Mike has built a once dormant Oregon program into a contender on the national level. This season his team came within a torn knee of competing for a national championship.

Bellotti knows offense. This years Ducks team finished 12th nationally in total offense. The spread option up in Eugene absolutely decimated Michigan and it beat the Trojans. Teamed with DeWayne Walker's defense (and Bellotti is rumored to want to keep Walker) they could build a potent team in the next few years. The only question is how much of his offensive success was Mike and how much was it is coordinators?

All of Bellotti's success has come while trying to recruit kids to Oregon. Imagine what he could accomplish with the wealth of talent at his finger tips in Southern California. He also had that little incident two years ago with Carroll in the Coliseum. Don't you think he would love to stick it to Pete in his own back yard!

Negatives

Bellotti's team, over the last few years, have had some games they completely mailed in. Every other season his team performs poorly and they have faded down the stretch. All of that sounds awfully familiar to Bruin fans. There is a lot of critics of Bellotti who say he depends heavily on his coordinators for success.

They have lost four straight bowl games, including that embarrassing debacle to BYU in the Las Vegas bowl last season. His players were woofing and hollering before the game and then got completely owned. Is he losing his touch when it comes to motivating his players? Despite having superior talent to the Beavers, Oregon loses to them every other season. Is that just the nature of a rivalry game or poor coaching?

Going from Nike-U to UCLA's Spaulding field would be a huge downgrade for Bellotti. Is he really going to be happy moving from Eugene to Westwood? He is the toast of the town up there and he'll come into LA and have to play second fiddle to the program at Fig Tech. Could this be just a ploy to get more money from Oregon?

Verdict

Bellotti would be a solid choice for UCLA. Proven success, potent offense, and a guy you know is a good (though not great) head football coach. He hasn't had great success outside of a few seasons at Oregon... but common it's Oregon. They have very little in state talent and they have to fight with Washington and the California schools for their local kids. With Southern California kids at his disposal he should field a much better team.

He is getting a bit up there in age, but I like that Mike has been very loyal to his job. If he could come to UCLA and finish out his career (likely another 10 years) then he could pass the torch to an assistant that he has groomed. That would be a great way to establish a new dynasty in West LA. The question is can he do it? Oregon was great when they had Tedford but faded after he took the job at Cal. Can Bellotti attract a top notch OC to UCLA?