Not sure I agree. Bellotti earned a considerable amount of goodwill and did some excellent coaching, taking the team to the Cotton Bowl and then rebuilding up to a Fiesta Bowl berth after the 2001 season. He also had the good sense to fix what wasn't working on both the offense and the defense when one of his experiments didn't work out (Stubler) and to improve on another (Crowton for Kelly).
Likewise, Kent was able to recruit well and had a run of really strong teams, including the Elite 8 team. He was probably given about a year more than he should have been.
While it doesn't seem to have been by design, the coaching search to replace Kent went about as well as you could hope for. I honestly can't think of a coach I would rather have coaching Oregon than Dana Altman. His ability to recruit and coach up the new generation of one-and-dones is remarkable.
That's the kind of hire we probably need for the football program. Oregon is always going to have to innovate and be just a little bit smarter than the next guy to succeed. We don't have a local recruiting base, and it rains a lot. But something we have now that we haven't had historically speaking are considerable financial resources and an AD that seems committed to winning.
I don't think Oregon is as cut throat as you guys think. Go look at Bellotti from 2002-2006 before they finally made some changes or the last few years of Ernie Kent.
You won't get a top flight coach unless you fired him now. Another Holiday Bowl season or two and you won't be this top notch program that coaches would kill to go coach for.
I think Helfrich will get at least four years. Like another poster mentioned if he is average next year look for them to play the fire the assistant coaches trick that never seems to work.
I really wanted Gary Andersen from Utah State last year...not Helf. That guy can coach his tits off.
People freaking out saying "it's just one game" don't understand trajectory. This will be, easily, the most talented team Helfrich will ever have. If he gets throttled by a shit Arizona team this year, what's he going to do with noodle armed Lockie handing off to Fumbles Tyner next year? This year, is and always has been, Helf's ceiling. I always disagreed with the Helf hire, but like you said, we thought anyone could coach the team this year. I thought it would be 2-3 years before the wheels fell off. The fact that Helf did it in one season.....Jesus.
I like Tyner and thought he should have been given more playing time earlier in the season to develop him. He's built like the kind of guy we need to punch it up the middle, Marshal is good but kind of small, and forget DAT as a running back. Need to get back to running the ball first, like we used to do, not the air raid shit. And stopping the run. Until we prove we can do that again, every fucking team we face is just going to run it every play down our throat. This problem needs to be resolved immediately. And Helfrich needs to stop being Mr. cool uncle buddy to the players, and be a leader. But I'm not sure he's capable of that, and have serious doubts about him. I don't think we can afford to give more than a year to right the ship. It may even prove to be a serious mistake to let him try.
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Likewise, Kent was able to recruit well and had a run of really strong teams, including the Elite 8 team. He was probably given about a year more than he should have been.
While it doesn't seem to have been by design, the coaching search to replace Kent went about as well as you could hope for. I honestly can't think of a coach I would rather have coaching Oregon than Dana Altman. His ability to recruit and coach up the new generation of one-and-dones is remarkable.
That's the kind of hire we probably need for the football program. Oregon is always going to have to innovate and be just a little bit smarter than the next guy to succeed. We don't have a local recruiting base, and it rains a lot. But something we have now that we haven't had historically speaking are considerable financial resources and an AD that seems committed to winning.