Logic follows in sports that continuity — working together, playing together, learning each other’s tendencies and weaknesses — breeds success. In the sport of football, 22 men look to exert their will over one oblong ball toward one of two general goals: Score, or stop the other team from scoring.
College football does not allow for continuity among the players by its nature. However, the coaches, the molders of men who hold great influence in the community, are thought to benefit from this principle.
Few staffs have enjoyed continuity among coaches quite like the Oregon Ducks. Four assistant coaches — Don Pellum, Steve Greatwood, Nick Aliotti and Gary Campbell — are 20-year veterans of the football staff, as is strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe. Head coach Chip Kelly may be a relative novice, in his second year in the top job and his fourth as a Bowl Championship Series team coach. That said, Kelly is only the third man to hold down the top job since 1977.
Continuity among college football coaches suggests a working environment in which collective memory and individual experience mesh to form a vast knowledge base. There is a measure of inside principle and outside sensitivity that, in theory, makes a long-tenured staff successful.
University of Pittsburgh football had a head coach in Dave Wannstedt that its athletic department felt was not performing to its standards. Wannstedt was forced to resign after the Panthers went 7-5 this season and made the BBVA Compass Bowl; he was 42-31 at Pitt over six seasons.
Mike Haywood, who spent the last two seasons coaching Miami of Ohio, accepted the job at Pitt after leading the RedHawks to a 9-4 season this year. On its face, Haywood’s hiring showed promise. He turned around a squad that went 1-11 in his first season and his motivational skills were championed.
“He’s a man of integrity and character and will be a true inspirational leader for our football team,” Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said after introducing Haywood.
About that. On New Year’s Eve, Haywood was arrested at his home in South Bend, Ind. over an argument with the mother of his child that allegedly grew physical. He was eventually charged with felony domestic battery. Pederson fired Haywood on Sunday, 17 days into his Panthers tenure.
In the halcyon days of the Haywood era at Pitt, the new coach hinted that he would not retain the Panthers’ current assistant coaches in favor of members of his Miami staff. Now, as many as 18 men no longer have job security with their current schools.
Schools have not been hesitant to clean house when a head football coach leaves. Paying out millions of dollars in staff changes has become common practice. For sought-after assistant coaches, tenure is something for the crusty old professors. Demand for a top-flight staff and reputation make coaching changes expensive propositions.
Gene Chizik is in his second year as the head coach of Auburn, and his staff remains virtually new to the school. Of the Tigers’ 10-man staff, only cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley (12 years) has been around for more than two years. Compare that to three Oregon assistants with two years at the school or fewer: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mark Helfrich, defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro and wide receivers coach Scott Frost.
Will continuity have any real effect on the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game? Not likely. What Auburn’s staff may lack in experience with the school it certainly makes up for in acumen.
Nevertheless, it should be encouraging to Oregon fans that the current staff, built up over time, has achieved continuity. The situations they will face in the game come with added pressure but should not be demonstrably different than any the Ducks coaches have already seen. They will know what must be done.
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