For a while, Mike Bellotti has had a family vacation to Italy planned. If you didn’t know, the story came out around national signing day in early February that he would take a trip with his family to visit his daughter, who is studying abroad in Italy.
He’ll arrive back just a day or two before spring practice officially starts March 30. The common feeling is that the two-day window is too little time to announce his future plans without throwing a lot into chaos. Chip Kelly would then have about 48 hours to prepare for spring practice as “the” guy.
There’s an expectation that – wouldn’t it be nice? – Bellotti will talk with University President Dave Frohnmayer and athletic director Pat Kilkenny this week about the job, then take the weekend to think it through.
And that’s all the background, and it’s all fine.
But there are a couple things that Bellotti likely never thought about when he helped craft the succession plan in December that could pressure his decision to return as head football coach or become the new athletic director: Ernie Kent and Bev Smith.
Now, anyone inside the Casanova Center who knew about the pressures on both this season would have to be blissfully ignorant to think they would both be in ideal situations at the end of the season that would bring them back next season.
Instead, it appears as if one person is out the door, and that is Smith.
Kent has had alternating calls for his job and those for it to be saved. Meanwhile, the local, Creswell-raised Gonzaga coach Mark Few has one of the hottest teams in America. He’s been a popular figure in the mythical “next coach” search at the UO for years.
Again, more background. But because of it, this no longer becomes Bellotti’s sole decision. He will know that if he does not return next year, he will have to take action on Kent’s future. Smith’s, too, maybe, if she hasn’t been fired already early next week.
I don’t know the interworkings of Kent’s and Bellotti’s relationship together as the most prominent people walking around the Casanova Center. Both must have some kind of camaraderie for that simple fact, but the rest isn’t known. But after being peers for more than 12 years, you wonder if Bellotti would want to put himself in the position to have to let Kent go only months into his stint as athletic director.
I don’t doubt Bellotti has the stones to make a decision like that a year or two into his job. He would be more comfortable with the process, and he’ll have other decisions behind him.
Also, you think making big decisions isn’t part of his current job? You bet.
But I see Bellotti as a man who takes pride in constructing his legacy. You can see it right now in the pains he’s taking on whether to come back or not. He knows this season in football could be special – and he also knows it’ll be hard to write a better ending than last season’s five-game, dominant winning streak capped with a bowl win.
If you take on this project as athletic director now, firing or bringing back Kent becomes the first decision you are remembered for. You bring him back and the Ducks tank and Matt Court begins to look like a cavernous arena you’d be lucky to fill. Likewise, if you fire him, you’ve put a lot of your legacy as an AD on a new coach who you had better hope will win to make your decision look good.
It’s a very tough decision. It’s one reason why both his jobs (current and future) have and will have a lot of compensation to make such decisions.
We’re back to the vacation itinerary. There’s not a lot of time to make this decision and feel like it didn’t come off rushed. He’s seen the struggles of both basketball coaches all season. If he doesn’t announce his plans before leaving for Italy, there isn’t a place in the world Bellotti could leave to and forget about all the implications of his job decision.
[email protected]