| Mike Bellotti | |
|---|---|
| Sport(s) | Football |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | December 21, 1950 |
| Place of birth | Sacramento, California |
| Playing career | |
| 1970–1972 | UC Davis |
| Position(s) | Tight end, wide receiver |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1973–1976 1977–1978 1979 1980–1983 1984–1988 1989–1994 1995–2008 |
UC Davis (assistant) Cal State Hayward (OC) Weber State (OC) Cal State Hayward (OC) Chico State Oregon (OC) Oregon |
| Administrative career (AD unless noted) | |
| 2009–2010 | Oregon |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 137–80–2 |
| Bowls | 6–6 |
| Statistics | |
| College Football Data Warehouse | |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| 2 Pac-10 (2000–2001) | |
Robert Michael "Mike" Bellotti (born December 21, 1950) is a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC.[1] A native of California, he was hired as football offensive coordinator by the University of Oregon in 1989. From 1995 to 2009, he was the head coach of the Oregon Ducks football team. In July 2009, after 13 years as head coach during which time he became the Ducks's winningest head coach, he resigned to become the school's athletic director; he resigned that post to become an ESPN analyst in March 2010.[1][2]
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Bellotti attended Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, California, where he played football, basketball and baseball and graduated in 1969.[3] After high school he went to the University of California, Davis and played football at the positions of tight end and wide receiver. He started at tight end as a sophomore and junior, then earned second-team all-Far Western Conference honors at wide receiver as senior.[3] Bellotti graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Physical Education in 1973. He completed the teaching credential program at UC Davis in 1974. In 1982, Bellotti earned his Master of Science degree in Physical Education at California State University, East Bay (then known as Cal State-Hayward).[4]
In 1973, he started his career in football coaching at his alma mater as an assistant coach under College Football Hall of Fame coach Jim Sochor.[5] The next season he worked as the JV teams offensive coordinator, and during the 1975 and 1976 seasons he was the JV teams head coach. Also at that time he served as the receivers coach for the varsity team and as a coach for UC Davis' JV baseball team.
Bellotti was hired at California State University, Hayward (Cal State Hayward or CSU-Hayward; now California State University, East Bay) in 1977 and worked as the offensive coordinator for two seasons. He returned to the school as offensive coordinator in 1980, and remained until 1983. In 1982, he earned a masters degree from the school in physical education.
In 1979, Bellotti served as offensive coordinator at Weber State University, returning to CSU-Hayward after just one season.
California State University, Chico (Chico State) hired Bellotti to serve as their head football coach in 1984. He remained head coach until 1988 and compiled a record of 21–25–2.
University of Oregon head coach Rich Brooks hired Bellotti as offensive coordinator in 1989. Bellotti remained in that position through the 1994 season, when Brooks left to coach in the National Football League, and Bellotti was promoted to head coach starting with the 1995 season.
Bellotti's record at the University of Oregon stands at 116–55. In 2006, he passed his former boss, Rich Brooks, as the winningest football coach in Oregon's history. He owns the first four ten-win seasons in school history (2000, 2001, 2005, 2008). His best season was 2001, when he led the Ducks to a school-record 11 wins and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl. They finished second in both major polls, the highest final ranking in school history.
Bellotti also led Oregon to a regular season #2 ranking in the 2007 season, albeit very briefly. After achieving that ranking, the Ducks lost Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Dennis Dixon to a season-ending knee injury, and Oregon proceeded to lose three straight games to Arizona, UCLA and archrival Oregon State to close out the regular season.[3] Earlier that season, Bellotti led Oregon to a resounding 39–7 victory over Michigan at "The Big House", earning the Ducks and Dixon much national attention. Oregon also defeated #9 USC and #6 Arizona State in back-to-back games at Autzen Stadium earlier that season. The Ducks recovered from their three game losing streak following the Dixon injury by defeating South Florida in the Sun Bowl in dominating fashion (56–21), thus reversing a trend of four straight bowl losses. In 2008, the Ducks recovered strongly from a mid-season lull to win their last four games against solid competition, including a Holiday Bowl win over No. 13 ranked Oklahoma State.[6] Bellotti has more post-season appearances and victories than any football coach in Oregon history.
On December 2, 2008, shortly after defeating the Oregon State Beavers in the Civil War to prevent them from clinching a Rose Bowl berth, the university announced that Bellotti would pass the head coaching position on to Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly at some undetermined point in the future and take over as the university's Athletic Director at that time.[7][8][9]
During his tenure as athletic director, Bellotti dealt with a number of disciplinary issues involving members of the football program, including LaGarrette Blount, LaMichael James, and Jeremiah Masoli, and fired long-time basketball coach Ernie Kent, whose teams had performed poorly in recent seasons.[10] After just nine months on the job, Bellotti announced his resignation March 19. He is joining ESPN as a college football analyst. Bellotti had agreed to terms with UO officials, but there was no written contract stating his salary and the $2.3 million severance payout. The resignation agreement, including the payout terms, finally was placed on paper and signed by Bellotti on March 16, with university president Richard Lariviere signing it March 19. Because of the lack of an initial written contract, the Oregon Justice Department confirmed it plans to review the $2.3 million severance payment from the University of Oregon to the former athletic director.[11]
In 2009, Bellotti was named third vice president of the American Football Coaches Association. According to AFCA tradition, he would move up to second vice president in 2010, first vice president in 2011 and president in 2012.[12]
In March 2010, Bellotti announced that he was resigning as athletic director to become a college football television analyst on ESPN, with his first appearance on ESPN to occur in April.[1]
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chico State Wildcats (California Collegiate Athletic Association) (1984–1988) | |||||||||
| 1984 | Chico State | 4–5–1 | 2–3–1 | ||||||
| 1985 | Chico State | 4–4–1 | 3–1–1 | ||||||
| 1986 | Chico State | 7–3 | 4–1 | ||||||
| 1987 | Chico State | 3–6 | 3–2 | ||||||
| 1988 | Chico State | 3–7 | 3–2 | ||||||
| Chico State: | 21–25–2 | 15–9–2 | |||||||
| Oregon Ducks (Pacific-10 Conference) (1995–2008) | |||||||||
| 1995 | Oregon | 9–3 | 6–2 | 3rd | L Cotton | 18 | 18 | ||
| 1996 | Oregon | 6–5 | 3–5 | T–5th | |||||
| 1997 | Oregon | 7–5 | 3–5 | T–7th | W Las Vegas | ||||
| 1998 | Oregon | 8–4 | 5–3 | T–3rd | L Aloha | ||||
| 1999 | Oregon | 9–3 | 6–2 | T–2nd | W Sun | 18 | 19 | ||
| 2000 | Oregon | 10–2 | 7–1 | T–1st | W Holiday | 9 | 7 | ||
| 2001 | Oregon | 11–1 | 7–1 | 1st | W Fiesta † | 2 | 2 | ||
| 2002 | Oregon | 7–6 | 3–5 | 8th | L Seattle | ||||
| 2003 | Oregon | 8–5 | 5–3 | T–3rd | L Sun | ||||
| 2004 | Oregon | 5–6 | 4–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 2005 | Oregon | 10–2 | 7–1 | 2nd | L Holiday | 12 | 12 | ||
| 2006 | Oregon | 7–6 | 4–5 | T–5th | L Las Vegas | ||||
| 2007 | Oregon | 9–4 | 5–4 | T–4th | W Sun | 23 | 24 | ||
| 2008 | Oregon | 10–3 | 7–2 | T–2nd | W Holiday | 9 | 10 | ||
| Oregon: | 116–55 | 72–43 | |||||||
| Total: | 137–80–2 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title | |||||||||
| †Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll. |
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