Maybe the playing surface at Autzen Stadium was named too soon. Less than a decade after the field was named for former Oregon and current Kentucky coach Rich Brooks, current Oregon coach Mike Bellotti became the school’s leader in victories.
In less than 12 seasons, Bellotti accumulated 92 wins – 57 in the Pacific-10 Conference, ranking ninth in conference history. Bellotti bypassed Brooks with the Ducks’ 31-24 victory against Fresno State last Saturday.
“It just says that I’ve surrounded myself with some good people,” Bellotti said. “I’m actually surprised by that more so than people would think. When I signed on here 18 years ago as the offensive coordinator I didn’t come here to be the head coach. I didn’t expect to be the head coach. When I got the job, to think that I’m here 12 years later, doing the same things, is pleasing yet a little bit surprising too.
“I’m very proud to be the winningest coach at Oregon. It’s a tremendous milestone in my career and it makes me feel very good about what we do. You want to be the best. We all work to a standard of excellence that you set for yourself and other people sometimes set for you, too.”
If the Ducks remain undefeated through conference play this season, Bellotti will tie former USC coach Howard Jones (1925-40) for fourth all-time on the conference wins list. However, Bellotti plans on sticking around for while.
“As long as I enjoy the job and feel challenged by the job and feel like I can relate to the people that I coach, I’ll want to be here,” he said. “The hardest part about coaching is the time constraints.
You spend more time with your football players than your family.
“There’s never a time that I’m not the head coach of the University of Oregon football team. Whether I’m in public, or whether I’m making phone calls to a recruit, or whether I’m entertaining the media or boosters or whatever, but you are always building for next year. We have nine commitments for next year’s team and we are recruiting people for the following year. So when do you stop? I don’t know. It just keeps going. It’s one of those roller coaster rides and as it gets going, it just gets going faster and faster every year.”
Bellotti said he spends approximately 90 hours per week at work and although he has a time set for him to go home each night, he doesn’t always get home in time to watch American Idol.
“There’s always something else to do,” he said.
Once the season ends, the schedule becomes even tighter. Bellotti said he spends approximately 16 hours per day recruiting, five days per week, on the road.
Then, he hosts recruits on the weekends.
“When they get on a plane on Sunday to go back home, we get on a plane to go recruiting again,” Bellotti said.
That mentality and effort is what will get Oregon a national championship because the state doesn’t produce enough top-notch recruits for a top-rated program, Bellotti said.
“We are going to have to recruit better,” he said. “We have to recruit nationally basically.”
Although don’t rule out this year. If the Ducks can stay healthy and continue to improve, Bellotti believes Oregon has a shot at a national title.
“So far we’ve struggled to stay healthy,” he said. “Injury creates opportunity for someone else to step up.”
Following his most successful season – 2001 when the Ducks finished second in the nation, won the Pacific-10 Conference title and nearly played for the national championship – Bellotti was a hot commodity for big-name schools and NFL teams. Instead of bolting for more money or a larger market, Bellotti decided to stay at Oregon.
“There were three things: the quality of life here, the people that I work with and the desire to finish the job,” Bellotti said. “I think a lot of places look good and you are just exchanging one set of problems for another. I think this is as good a place to work as there is in the nation.”
Oregon director of athletics Bill Moos granted Bellotti permission to investigate other offers and when the coach said he wanted to stay, Moos knew how important that was for the state of the program.
“It clearly illustrates that Oregon has become a destination and not a stepping stone,” he said. “In the event that I hope does not happen – that Mike would ever leave or retire – we’d have a lot of people beating down the door to hopefully have an opportunity to coach at Oregon.”
Moos said Bellotti would remain as head coach for as long as he wants to stay with the program.
“He’s a young 55, so I hope it’s a long time,” he said.
In the meantime, Bellotti will have his third chance at beating Oklahoma in as many seasons and another opportunity to showcase what Oregon football has become in the past 12 years.
Oklahoma is the only school that Bellotti hasn’t beaten in multiple attempts at Oregon. However, he has recorded nearly 25 percent of school’s wins since joining the program in 1989 as an offensive coordinator. Bellotti also produced an increasing win total for six straight years and has only one losing season during his tenure (5-6 in 2004). In addition, the Ducks have played in nine
bowl games and finished in the top half of the conference standings in all but two seasons that Bellotti has been at the helm.
All of that would normally signal pressure to win, which Bellotti receives and said is a good sign that the program is among the nation’s elite. However, that pressure doesn’t get to him. Bellotti said his job has never been a job to him and when it does, that is the sign for change. Although, he said, he wouldn’t leave football, completely.
“I love college football. I love the pageantries, the competition, the rivalries,” Bellotti said. “I think when I stop coaching, I’ll find some way to continue being involved in college football.”