Bob Toledo (center) spent five years as an assistant coach at Oregon before moving to UCLA.
When UCLA head coach Bob Toledo started as offensive coordinator at Oregon in 1983, he had no idea what he was standing on.
A stepping stone.
That’s what Oregon has become for many coaches in the Pacific-10 Conference. Four current conference coaches started as assistant coaches at Oregon including Toledo, Ducks head coach Mike Bellotti, California head coach Jeff Tedford and Arizona State head coach Dirk Koetter.
“It’s kind of the cradle of coaches on the West Coast,” Toledo said. “It was a stepping stone, and it still is because a lot of people have had success going there and then moving on.”
Toledo is the most established of the ex-Oregon assistants, aside from Bellotti. During his time as offensive coordinator for the Ducks, Toledo coached the likes of Bill Musgrave, Chris Miller and Derek Loville. His tutelage of those players helped him land a job at Texas A&M, where he coached the school’s most prolific offense ever and was with an Aggie team that went to three-straight Cotton Bowls.
Since he took over as Bruin head coach, Toledo has turned UCLA into a fun-‘n’-gun squad with an up-tempo offense, a style that may have come to fruition Saturday in Corvallis. The Bruins romped over the Beavers 43-35 in a crucial Pac-10 matchup.
But the team that might have benefited the most from Toledo’s time is Oregon.
“(The Oregon offense) has gone from Bob Toledo to Mike Bellotti to Al Borges to me to Tedford and now to Andy (Ludwig),” Koetter said. “They’ve kept the best of all those coordinators in that package. They have some really good stuff.”
Koetter presided over Bellotti’s offenses in the early years of the current coach’s tenure. He presided over another great quarterback, eventual first-round draft pick Akili Smith.
“I think having Neal Zoumboukos and Gary Campbell in there has a lot to do with it,” Koetter said of the Oregon assistant’s mystique.
Zoumboukos and Campbell are the offensive line and running back coaches, respectively, who have 41 years of Oregon coaching experience between them. While many other coaches have come and gone, the pair are the only two coaches other than Bellotti strength and conditioning coach Jim Radcliffe with more than 10 years of Oregon experience.
“In the past, you might have said we did more with less,” Bellotti said. “We didn’t get an abundance of great athletes but we did a good job coaching.
“I’ve been very fortunate to hire good people and certainly, many of them have gone on to get good jobs.”
The most recent Bellotti mentoree to hit the big time is Tedford, Oregon’s most recent offensive coordinator who has turned around the program at California.
Bellotti said there is a flip side to losing all your assistants to other programs: Top-flight coaches want the vacated jobs.
“For our last offensive coordinator job I had a former head coach from the Pac-10, an offensive coordinator from the NFL,” Bellotti said. “It’s really a significant opportunity for improvement in the people to select from.”
Toledo said it’s a mark of respect when coaches leave a program.
“As a head coach, it makes you feel good that people are coming after your coaches, because if they’re not, you’re probably not doing a good enough job,” Toledo said.
So it’s a mark of respect. Even when coaches seem to be using your program as a stepping stone.
Related Links:
Coaches Profile: Bob Toledo
Coaches Profile: Mike Bellotti
Coahes Profile: Jeff Tedford
Coaces Profile: Dirk Koetter
Oregon Duck football coach and player profiles
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