When head football coach Mike Bellotti announced he will retire from coaching football and become the new University athletic director, it was a decision geared toward the future.
The future of Duck football, the future of Duck athletics and most importantly, the future of new head football coach Chip Kelly.
“The future is bright,” current Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said via telephone on Saturday. “I couldn’t be more thrilled for Oregon athletics and our football program. We couldn’t have a better outcome.”
Bellotti’s 14 seasons at the helm will no doubt be celebrated over the coming months, but with the approach of spring football on March 30, time was of the essence in locking down his successor, one who would continue the legacy Bellotti built.
Kelly comes in with a diverse background on the offensive side of the ball. A native of Manchester, N.H., he spent 13 years coaching for the Division I-AA University of New Hampshire Wildcats, and before that he had one-year stints at Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities.
He started off as the running backs coach for the Wildcats, followed by two seasons as the offensive line coach. Then in 1999 Kelly took over the reigns of the offense and began building a squad that put up numbers that got him noticed by top programs across the country. His 2005 team finished second in the country in total offense, third in scoring and fifth in passing.
“I feel very comfortable turning the program over to Chip Kelly,” Bellotti said Saturday at his final press conference as head coach. “Chip has earned my respect and the admiration of our coaches and players in his short time here.”
“My plan has been to make a decision to allow him to get the next coach in here, and give them a chance to go through spring ball as a trial run. I wouldn’t do it in June or July and then have to hire a guy who hadn’t been with our team in the spring. My thing was really guided by football.”
In front of a packed room of members of the media, Kelly announced that he was ready to step forward and take the reigns of his first head coaching position in 19 years of coaching football.
“It’s a tremendous honor,” Kelly said. “Very rarely do you get the opportunity to become a head football coach in a situation like this. Usually a new coach comes in because you have to turn a program around. To get the chance to take a team that finished ninth in the country last year, and to be the successor of Mike Bellotti is tough for me to put into words.”
Where words fail Kelly, his reputation and drive do not. He’s eager to get on the field and said his first task is to find a coach to fill his now-vacated position. But Kelly is still up in the air about what the title of the coach will be.
“The person is obviously going to be an offensive coach that can fill in,” he said. “But I’m not going to pigeonhole myself and lock in to that and say, ‘I’m just looking for this.’ There are too many good people out there. I’m going to scour the country and find the best person that’s the best fit for this football program.”
So for now, no one knows who will be calling plays for the offense on Sept. 5 when Oregon opens its 2009 season against Boise State in Boise, Idaho.
One thing that will be consistent is the high-octane scoring fans have become accustomed to.
“I’m sitting here because of my background on offense and my fingerprint will always be on the offense. The only thing I think will change from this year to next year is hopefully we score more points.”
Scoring more points than the Ducks did in 2008 would certainly be a prodigious effort. Behind Kelly’s play-calling, Oregon established school records in each of the last two years in scoring, rushing yards and total offense. Last season it finished ranked second in the country in rushing at 280.1 yards per game, and seventh in the nation in scoring (41.9 points per game) and total yards (484.9 ypg).
But it’s now Kelly’s ship to run. He has the coming months to find a new coach and put his mark on Oregon football. And one thing is for sure: He won’t be toting around an Oregon sledgehammer and busting things up at halftime. That was Bellotti’s thing.
“I want to give Chip the opportunity to do what he does,” Bellotti said. “They’ll be his decisions. It’s his program. When I came in and became the head coach I changed some things; I’m sure Chip has some ideas as how to do things he feels comfortable with.”
But Kelly won’t be afraid to ask advice of his mentor. He says one of the best things about this situation is the proximity he will have in working with Bellotti as the athletic director.
“Mike’s set the bar very, very, very high for success,” Kelly said. “He’s been one of the most successful coaches in the country and the one thing that’s comforting is I know I’m going to need help through this, and he’s only going to be about a hop, skip and a jump away.”
So now a new era of Duck football starts. With another good recruiting class and some key returners back, Oregon is set to continue its rise to the top of the Pacific-10 Conference. And Kelly has the vote of confidence of everyone at the Casanova Center, including his new athletic director.
“I feel he’s an outstanding football coach,” Bellotti said. “He has great organization skills, he’s a great recruiter, he’s thorough, innovative, competent; all those things. Does he have things to learn? Yes. Those will happen. He has all the necessary criteria to be successful as a head football coach at the Division I level, and we’re happy to have him.”
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