Bellotti does it again
Shortly after Oregon dispatched Michigan 31-27 last weekend and made, oh, just a few pundits feel a bit silly, an interesting notion wafted into the firmament.
The last time the Ducks shocked everyone and pounded a third-ranked power that was supposed to be just too rugged and manly for the team in green was in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl. That day Joey Harrington and Oregon slapped Colorado all over the field in a 38-16 victory.
But here's the thought that gives pause. What if Oregon had played Miami in the Rose Bowl that year instead of Nebraska? Oh, no one would have given the Ducks much of a chance. Miami was, er, just too rugged and manly.
But what if? What if the Bowl Championship Series computers had spit out a different logarithm, and Oregon coach Mike Bellotti pulled another Duck out of baseball cap and his team had beaten Miami and won the national championship?
Then everyone would be calling Bellotti a great coach instead of merely a very good one. Great coaches win national titles. Very good ones win over 70 percent of their games at Oregon, go to six consecutive bowls and send assistants off to be successful head coaches elsewhere (see Jeff Tedford at California and Dirk Koetter at Arizona State). Very good coaches figure out ways to beat putative national title contenders with just eight senior starters.
"This group has an inner strength that I like," Bellotti said. "It's not any magic on my part."
Bellotti, 52, has reason to pooh-pooh such grand talk and speculation. The lone blot on his otherwise sterling record is last year's 7-6 season. The Ducks started 6-0 and ascended to No. 6 in the national rankings, only to lose six of their final seven games, including an embarrassing 38-17 loss in to Wake Forest in the now-defunct Seattle Bowl.
And he doesn't need to look any further to remember the disastrous slide than this weekend's visitor to once again cacophonous Autzen Stadium: No. 21 Washington State. The Cougars scored the final 15 points in last year's game with Oregon and won 32-21, the first of four consecutive defeats that completed a shocking nosedive.
Bellotti called the Michigan game the greatest non-conference victory in his nine seasons as Ducks coach. He relished holding Chris Perry, the nation's leading rusher, to just 26 yards on 11 carries. He savored the success of his dual quarterback system, once a ridiculed plan, as Kellen Clemens and Jason Fife have combined for a 64 percent completion rate and 276 yards passing per game with 11 touchdowns and no - zero! - interceptions.
But he'd just prefer to move on.
"The glow and the confidence factor can stay, but the focus has to shift," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it shifted Sunday."
Bellotti, 52, the dean of Pac-10 coaches with nine years at the Ducks helm following six years as the offensive coordinator, has had a part in over 20 percent of Oregon's 513 all-time victories. Only two Pac-10 coaches, USC's Howard Jones and John Robinson, compiled more victories in their first eight years than Bellotti's 67 (now 71).
He's tutored four All-Pac-10 quarterbacks, and the Ducks have averaged 33 points and 422.1 yards of offense during his tenure. He's 17-13 against ranked opponents, and the Ducks are 32-4 in Autzen Stadium since 1997.
He's been a candidate for a number of jobs, including Ohio State before Jim Tressel was tapped, but he's opted to remain in Eugene.
The victory over Michigan is compelling evidence that Oregon isn't a one-hit wonder in the nation's elite. And Bellotti is this close to earning a spot on the short list of the nation's great coaches.
Not that he pays attention to such notions wafting in the firmament.
"I don't know if you ever think you've arrived," he said.
Ted Miller covers the Pac-10 for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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