It’s only fitting that a game against No. 3 Michigan at Autzen Stadium — one of the biggest games of Mike Bellotti’s tenure — is also the 100th game with the head coach at Oregon’s helm.
Only Duck legends Len Casanova and Rich Brooks have coached more games at Oregon than Bellotti. Casanova did it from 1951-66 and amassed 163 games, while Brooks totaled 204 from 1977-94.
“It’s another game for me and I guess it’s my 100th game here as a coach,” Bellotti said. “That may mean as much to me as anything.”
It means a lot to the players and the fans, too.
Bellotti, in his ninth season as head coach at Oregon, is in a conference where coaches turn over more often than pancakes on a griddle.
On the other side of lauded football legend, Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Florida State’s Bobby Bowden — nationally revered coaches who have both topped 330 wins with their current programs — are closing in on retirement.
But in Eugene, the Bellotti era is going strong.
The UC Davis graduate took over the program Feb. 13, 1995, one month removed from a Rose Bowl appearance and Oregon’s first undisputed Pacific-10 Conference title in school history.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Bellotti’s Ducks since then — a 6-5, no bowl-game season in 1996 and the 2002 spiral to 7-6 — but the highlight films take up more space in the proverbial closet.
For starters, there’s the 23-game Autzen winning streak that stretched from Oct. 18, 1997 to Sept. 22, 2001.
The 2001 season also marked the first 11-win season in the history of Oregon and the Ducks finished with an all-time top ranking of No. 2 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls.
“I think if you look back at what they’ve done, what Mike Bellotti has done, they’ve established that program as a consistently ranked team,” Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.
Bellotti has led Oregon to seven bowl games in his eight seasons, including six consecutive appearances.
Factor in victories in four of those bowl games — the Fiesta Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Sun Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl — and Bellotti’s teams have more postseason wins than under any other Oregon coach.
“He’s a great coach,” outside linebacker Anthony Trucks said. “He’s a very smart man and he’s created a history for this program.”
Bellotti has the best career winning percentage — 70.7 — at Oregon since C.W. Spears coached 19 games from 1930-31 and had a 73.6 winning percentage. Spears has the best winning percentage of any coach who led the Ducks for more than one season.
Starting in the 1996 season and continuing on through 2001, Bellotti’s teams moved steadily up the win column. The 1996 squad had a 6-5 record, and each consecutive team added one victory until the 2001 squad made it 11-1.
His old job of offensive coordinator, which he held at Oregon from 1989-1994 during Brooks’ tenure, runs in his blood. In 84 of the 99 games Bellotti has coached, the Ducks have scored at least 30 points.
The Ducks have never been shut out in Bellotti’s tenure — a record that precedes the coach and dates back 211 games to 1985, when Bellotti was a head coach at Chico State.
During his time at Oregon, Bellotti has coached two quarterbacks who have thrown for more than 8,000 yards and 60 touchdowns.
Only seven quarterbacks have done that in the history of the Pac-10.
Now, the Bellotti system has a different look.
With both Kellen Clemens and Jason Fife sharing quarterback duties, Bellotti puts out a quarterback-by-committee system that is currently the most efficient passing offense in the country.
In game No. 100 for Bellotti’s Ducks, they will face a top-five team at Autzen for the first time.
Only once before in the past eight seasons has Oregon faced a No. 3 opponent, the 2001 Fiesta Bowl against Colorado, when the Ducks were No. 2.
“I think it’s a big, big game,” Bellotti said.