| 17 December 2011
On Tuesday Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian, one of the beat writers who covers the Ducks along with Ken Goe, got into a spirited discussion with several fans in his weekly chat feature while previewing the Rose Bowl.
Fentress, a fine writer and conscientious reporter, answered the usual questions about matchups and strengths in a capable way, until talk got around to Chip Kelly's legacy and whether or not Kelly had taken the program to heights Mike Bellotti and Rich Brooks couldn't. Here's an excerpt:
photo right: Kelly's pointed the way to 33 wins in three seasons as Oregon coach, and both his parents and his players believe in him. Is he Oregon's best ever?
So do you think that Chip is a top five coach since DAT and others buy into the team concept, the team wins and has a national following?
Chip is so more than Bellotti ever was!
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Comment From Stumptown Steve
CK is a better CEO than Belloti. Better recruiter, better motivator. There is a reason that MB was shown the door, and it was thrown wide open for Chip. |
Aaron Fentress: chiprules .... Top 5 in the nation for Chip? I think he needs to win a big bowl game, or at least defeat a good team outside of the Pac-12 before he could be considered a Top 10 coach.
You guys love you some Chip Kelly.
How soon people forget the architect of all you see, Mike Bellotti.
Bellotti finished No. 2 in the nation.
Puts in the spread
Is a knee injury away from national title game.
Hired Chip
But, now, it's all about Chip. LOL
Also, it was Bellotti's idea to rev up the offense and go faster, faster, faster.
Non-bandwagon fans, however, know all of this already.
The discussion went on, and it's pretty compelling stuff for Duck fans, the kind of debate that can get them through a long winter with no football, or a couple of lean years down the road.
Is Chip Kelly the best Oregon coach ever? Or is he the lucky recepient of a ready-made situation, an empire built by Brooks, Bellotti and Phil Knight?
What does Kelly have to do to be considered Oregon's best ever, or has he already earned that distinction? And if his legacy is as-yet incomplete, will he stay around long enough to give it a fast, hard, finish?
Mike Bellotti, a former tight end from UC Davis, like Kelly a former offensive coordinator at UO, is Oregon's all-time winningest coach at 116-55. He spent 13 years as the Ducks' head man, building a program Rich Brooks took from laughing stock status and "The Bottom Ten" to the 1995 Rose Bowl.
In his first year running the show the Ducks went 9-3, finishing third in the conference, losing the Rose Bowl to Rick Neuheisel and the Colorado Buffaloes. Over the next 12 seasons the Ducks made a bowl in all but two. They won the BCS Fiesta Bowl in 2001, the Joey Harrington billboard year, the team with Samie Parker, Justin Peele, Howry, Morris, Bauman, and a terrific supporting cast. They finished number two in the country, and everybody said they'd been jobbed out of an opportunity to face Miami in the national title game. Nebraska went instead, and got crushed. The Husker were fourth in the polls that year after a disastrous loss in the Big 12 title game. Hadn't even won their conference title. Somehow the computers vaulted them to two, and The Mustache missed out on a chance at BCS glory. Another one fell short in 2007, when Dennis Dixon, an unstoppable wonder that year who worked Oregon's spread offense like a magician, went down with a knee injury. They'd reached #2 in the polls, but Dixon's injury led to a three-game losing streak, recovering in time to beat South Florida in the Sun Bowl behind Justin Roper.
The Ducks finished in top ten three times under Bellotti. They won one conference title and shared another. Four other times they finished in The Top 25. But there were also years of 6-5, 7-5, 7-6, 5-6 and 7-6. From 2002 through 2006, the Ducks lost four minor bowl games in a row and missed going altogether in 2004, twice getting badly embarrassed in a bowl, teams that quit, more interested in weed or the casino, at the 2002 Seattle Bowl to Wake Forest and the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl to BYU.
By 2006 there were rumblings of discontent among fans about Coach Bellotti. He'd taken the program to heights in 2001, improved recruiting, oversaw a dazzling upgrade in facilities with talked-about uniforms and some fabulous early starts, but the Ducks seemed too prone to dissension or late-season collapses. He had only a so-so record in the Civil War, and couldn't break the stranglehold USC had on the conference. The Trojans were in the midst of winning seven conference titles in a row, every year recruiting a fresh crop of future NFL stars.
Every season Bellotti's Ducks would have a clunker of a game where they just didn't show up. Indiana in 2004, a disastrous 30-24 loss in the season opener in Autzen. 2006, they lost 37-10 to Arizona at home, getting run and passed all over the field. The Bellotti-era Ducks didn't have faceless opponents. Sometimes they played like a faceless team.
There were murmurs of distractions and an embarrassing family crisis. Some questioned if Bellotti was the coach to get Oregon to the next level of college football.
In the spring of 2007 he made another curious move, hiring an unknown offensive coordinator from Division II New Hampshire to replace Gary Crowton, who left to take a job at LSU. Chip Kelly, a fast-talking stubby New Englander. People wondered if he could groom Dennis Dixon into a more complete, more efficient quarterback.
Oregon went to the Big House and beat Michigan 39-7. They beat highly-ranked USC and Arizona State to reach 8-1 and number two in the country. But late in the ASU game, Dixon twisted his knee on a scramble.
The Ducks limped to a 9-4 finish and a Sun Bowl win without their leader, but the new offensive coordinator had everyone's attention, even more so after he molded a raw Jeremiah Masoli into a safety-trucking dual threat dynamo in 2008, as the Ducks shook off a shaky start to finish 10-3 and polish off Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl, finishing 9th in the country.
The Bellotti era ended in February when Oregon announced the coach was moving upstairs to athletic director, and Kelly would be the new head coach.
In three seasons under Kelly, the Ducks have gone 10-3, 12-1 and 11-2 with three conference titles, the only team in the country to make a BCS bowl the last three seasons.
But the factors in the argument are clouded. Does Kelly deserve the credit for taking the Ducks to a new level, or is he the blessed recepient of what Brooks, Bellotti and Knight built here?
While the answer in probably both, but Kelly has made three significant upgrades: mindset, recruiting and organization. Although the Ducks no longer have to contend with the Pete Carroll Trojans that dominated West Coast football in the Bellotti era, they won't have any 5-7 clunker seasons with Kelly as coach. This is a different era in Oregon football, and Kelly is the reason. He looks for results not excuses. Bellotti was better with the media and more gracious with the "O" Club, but Kelly is the most dynamic, effective coach in Oregon history.
What Kelly lacks thus far is a signature accomplishment. Oregon needs a win in the Rose Bowl to stifle the criticism that they can't win a big game.
