Bye, Bye Bellotti

It's like speed dating around here! Bellotti is gone. In a 24 hour whirlwind, he was on board, the front runner, about to sign a deal, and now he's out. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Anyways, now it is all about Rick. He would have been my pick even if Bellotti was in the mix. This is his dream job, he is a great recruiter, and great game day coach. I truly believe he is remorseful and learned his lesson from this past transgressions.

So, I'm happy about this latest development. Though, I know a lot of you aren't. You can just sing this happy little tune to get you in the mood for Slick Rick as our next head coach.


Neuheesl back in the gold and blue!
Bring on Rick and the sanctions too!


Uh, just kidding about that last part. I hope.

Comparing Bellotti and Dorrell

Since Mike Bellotti appears to the leading candidate for the job, let's take a look at what we are getting over our last head coach. Obviously, Bellotti has much more experience, but what happens if we compare their records for the last five seasons (Which was Dorrell's tenure at UCLA)? The differences may not be all that different.

If you look at the overall record, they are virtually the same.

UCLA (2003-2007): 35-27
Oregon (2003-2007): 38-23

Three more wins over the course of 5 years is hardly anything to brag about. Everyone called Dorrell's 10-win season in 2005 a fluke. Oregon also had a 10-win season that year. If you remove that season from the totals for both teams you get:

UCLA (2003-2004,2006-2007): 25-25
Oregon(2003-2004,2006-2007): 28-21

Again, not much of a separation between the teams. What about bowl records in that time:

UCLA (2003-2007): 1-3. Win: Sun Bowl. Lose: Vegas, Silicone Valley, Emerald.
Oregon (2003-2007): 0-3: Lose: Sun, Holiday, Vegas.

UCLA is slightly better, but only because Dorrell played in one more game than Bellotti. Finally, let's look at how these teams finished in the rankings:

UCLA (2003-2007): ranked 13/16th in 2005.
Oregon (2003-2007): ranked 12/13th in 2005.

Another big complaint about Dorrell was that his teams performed poorly at the end of the year. Let's look at how both teams played starting in November:

UCLA (2003-2007): 7-17.
Oregon (2003-2007): 7-14.

I have to say, my initial reaction to a Bellotti hire was very positive. But after thinking about it some more, and looking through the numbers, I'm not all that excited. I have to acknowledge that Bellotti has done this while at Oregon; he's had much less talent at his disposal than what Dorrell had at UCLA. But I'm not all that convinced that Bellotti is such a great coach. I think he is a good coach, sure, but not a great one.

A lot of his success came around 2000 when Jeff Tedford was still on the staff. Since Tedford left for Cal in 2002, the Ducks have been sort of average. Some of that comes from having a very poor defense. Maybe keeping Walker on staff will help alleviate that problem, but I'm wondering if Bellotti can really replicate his offensive success without another "Tedford" as the OC?

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?

Holly Bellotti!

Wow. So, now Mike Bellotti is in the mix? Are you serious!?! There were rumors earlier today that an experienced head coach was still in consideration. I thought that was just idle speculation and wishful thinking. But now Bellotti is being reported by the beat writers as having "spoke with UCLA". Dohn is even saying that a decision could come in the next 72 hours on whether the Ducks coach would take the job. That's weird because Oregon still has a date with South Florida in the Sun bowl on December 31st.

Talk about last minute DRAMA!

Damn, now I have to write another coaching profile.