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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2000)
hamagshimim, and birthright israel In Aviv Disutheqie December 2,2000 0pm Fir Rohm, EMU no cover * accepting canned food donations for tzedekah * DJ * dress to impress * the works! if you re selling books where the alarm dock rings! Prizes provided by Missouri Book Services. Coursebook Buyback ■ EMU Lobby Dec. 4-7 •8:30 A.M.-5:00 P.M. Dec. 8 •8:30 A.M.-4:00 P.M. ■ Main Store Nov. 29 - Dec. 11 • Regular store hours - ' '' - s " ' s . N' ::"-v Bring in books needed for upcoming terms and we II pay you one-half of the current new student price. UNIVERSITY of OREGON BOOKSTORE All books are 10/4 off EVERYDAY for current UO students, faculty and staff. Pick up an Emerald at J2 0 camPus & community locations. Others are canned, Bellotti safe at UO THE HOME STRETCH ROBBIE McCALLUM As head football coaches around the Pacific-10 Conference are canned left and right, Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti finds himself in one of the safest positions in the conference. The week following the end of reg ular season play has not been a good one for many Pac-10 coaches. Three head coaches were fired or driven out following the 2000 season. Arizona State’s Bruce Snyder was fired three weeks ago while the Sun Devils pre pared for rival Arizona, another team looking for a new head coach. Long time Wildcat head coach Dick Tomey resigned last week following a loss to Arizona State and lame-duck Snyder. On Monday, Southern California announced that head coach Paul Hackett would be relieved of his coaching duties, much to the enjoy ment of tire webmasters of www.FirePaulHackett.com. (I’m not making this up. This is an actual Web site.) Many in the media and on the sports chat shows predicted the fir ings weeks ago. All three teams had mediocre seasons, which looked to be do-or-die years for the three coaches. It just goes to show that a Pac-10 coaching seat is a shaky one—except at Oregon. Bellotti has seen nothing but suc cess in his tenure at Oregon. In six sea sons at the Ducks’ helm, Bellotti has compiled a 48-22 record and .686 winning percentage. Oregon teams have also enjoyed five bowl games and winning records in each of these seasons. Bellotti has also done what no other coach in school history has done — guide the Ducks to three straight post season berths. His winning records have moved him to third on the Ore gon all-time win list behind only Rich Brooks and Len Casanova. What’s more impressive is that both coaches spent more than 16 years at Oregon, while Bellotti has been here only six years. Bellotti has won with Rich Brooks’ recruits, watched them grad uate, and then won with his own re cruits. And he did it more effectively than the inconsistent Brooks, who coached several 2-9 teams to go along with his 8-4 squads. The closest Bellotti has come to failure is a 6-5 campaign in 1996 that saw no bowl game. It seems that Bellotti has truly found the recipe for success at Ore gon. And that recipe is this: 1. Cultivate a young quarterback, recruiting every two years, and have him wait in the wings until he is given the starting nod in his junior year (Tony Graziani, Ryan Perry-Smith and Joey Harrington, for example). 2. Complement the quarterback with a junior college running back (Saladin McCullough, Reuben Droughns, Maurice Morris). Those three backs in particular were quick to learn the Bellotti system and made an immediate impact on the Oregon win column and the school record book. 3. Protect offensive weapons with a scrappy but effective front line. The Oregon offensive and defensive lines have taken criticism and their fare share of injuries through the years, but "tI the bottom line is that they have got ten the job done. Standouts over the years include Tasi Malepea, Caleb Smith and Saul Patu. 4. Punish offenders with stingy de fense (remember Gang Green?) Sup port a scrappy front line with a thiev ing secondary (Kenny Wheaton, Reggie Jordan, Rashad Bauman and Michael Fletcher, to name a few). Bellotti and his staff have shown the ability to achieve success by plug ging in one player after another. Lose a quarterback to graduation, put in a sophomore. Lose a back to the NFL draft, entice another JC star. With the tradition that Bellotti has built at Oregon, it looks as if we will see no drop-off in talented recruits. In the future, look to see even more suc cess in Oregon football with Bellotti at the helm. If Bellotti is to leave Eugene, it will be via the NFL, not the Pac-10 hotseat. Robbie McCallum is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can be reached at coach_robbie@lycos.com. Support recycling, help the environment CHOOSf ENVIRONMENTALLY TREE FREE/RECYCLED PAPERS (in the €MU bosemeot next to The Break) & at the UO Deportment of piloting. Say NO to neon, heavily dyed & olden rod papers, they contaminate tl recycling process & the environment. Sponsored by the University of Oregon Environmental Issues Committee
