TDG Minnesota Gopher Coaching Candidate Bracket - Calhoun vs. Bellotti for the Championship
by GopherNation on Nov 23, 2010 10:15 AM CST
in Gopher Football
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PrintEverybody loves brackets and we all have opinions on the search for the next great coach to lead our Golden Gophers. Well it is time that you all have a say in the matter (and by having a say I mean pushing a button on the internet as an anonymous lurker and the results of said button pushing will have absolutely no bearing on the actual outcome of the coaching search). It is time for the voting to start and Gopher Nation to be allowed to speak.
The Championship Match-up! After a couple upsets in the semis we are down to Troy Calhoun and Mike Bellotti. Go ahead, Gopher fans...You Decide!
Troy Calhoun
Seed: 4
Current Position: Air Force Academy (HC)
TDG Candidate Profile
Why? -There probably isn't a coach in the country who does more with less. The Falcons are a well disciplined team who executes their schemes to near perfection. Part of that is the nature of a service academy cadet but part of that is the coaching of Troy Calhoun. Calhoun has great experience as a BCS level coordinator, an NFL coordinator and now a head coach in the best non-BCS conference. Calhoun has consistently won and finished right behind the big boys of the MWC. He is a winner, he is experienced and he would be a great fit in Minnesota.
Why Not? - Mostly because he probably won't come here. Calhoun is an Air Force graduate and there is a very strong tie there, he may be one of the rare coaches who isn't as concerned about moving up the ladder as he is with leaving a legacy. Some might be scared off by his wishbone offense but don't be. Most believe that he is not married to that offense and he has experience at Wake Forest, Denver and Houston running other offenses.
Mike Bellotti
Seed: 7
Current Position: ESPN Analyst, former Oregon HC
TDG Candidate Profile
Why? - The Oregon Ducks hadn't had a head coach who finished his career with a winning record since Len Casanova (1951-66), until Mike Bellotti came along. He won at Oregon piggy-backing on Rich Brook's 1994 Rose Bowl season and took off to have a .678 win % in his 14 years on the job. Eight seasons of finishing in the Pac10's top three and in 2001 the Ducks finished the season ranked #2 in the final BCS standings. The guy has won and we'd love to have a winner. His offenses are high scoring, he's run a BCS caliber team and he has spent plenty of time as an athletic director (maybe he could take Maturi's job too). Mostly he was part of rebuilding a broken program into an elite program. Rich Brooks got the ball rolling and Bellotti took it to another level.
Bellotti is also known as a coach who develops other coaches. He was incredibly successful as the head coach where he groomed Chip Kelly to eventually take over the program. Kelly now has the Ducks in prime position to be in the BCS Title game this year. So he may not be your Gopher coach for the next couple decades but even if he doesn't stick around for years to come, maybe he develops his successor and we start to develop some continuity here.
Why Not? -First off, he may not be interested in the job. If he doesn't want to move to Minnesota and deal with recruiting and put his job security in the hands of 18-22 year old kids, then obviously he'll come off the board. Secondly he isn't young and hungry anymore. He stepped away from coaching to move into an administrative role as Oregon's AD. There is no guarantee that he wants to put the headset back on and coach again. The job is grueling and demanding, not an ideal position for someone who is going to be 60 in a couple months. And even if he wants the job how long would he really stick around. This is not a one or two year rebuilding job. This may take several years and who knows how much patience he would have.
Championship Bracket
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What a Barn Burner!
Also not sure if it belongs here but JoPa said today that he’s coming back to coach PSU in 2011. I am guessing that the Minnesota job just got a little more attractive for Al Golden
Agreed
We’ll see how long Al wants to wait for the PSU job if we throw a few million dollars at him. But do you like him better than Calhoun?
Bellotti
I’ve voted for him throughout. If he’d take it, I think he’d be a great choice. Proven commodity. Likely stable and won’t be looking for that next job like an up and comer. And then hopefully we groom an assistant.
Maroon and Gold Headquarters: The Daily Gopher
Grooming assistants might be his biggest strength
And that’s saying something. If he can find us the next Chip Kelly? Yes please!
Agree and Disagree...
I agree that Belotti has done an admirable job of developing coaching staffs, but I wouldn’t say Chip Kelly was his star pupil. Kelly already had a very big name in coaching circles as the OC at New Hampshire. I give Belotti a lot of credit for recruiting Kelly to go from one coast to another, but Kelly was only on Belotti’s staff in Oregon for two years. He spent 12 years (7 as OC) at New Hampshire.
So my impression was that Belotti recruited Kelly and gave him the keys to the offense. I don’t think Belotti developed Kelly, per se.
Identifying and trusting your assistants ...
…. seems to me to be a crucial component for our next coach. Thanks to Brew’s inconsistent approach to offense, the Gophers have lacked an identity. If Bellotti, or whoever, wants to hand the keys on offense over to a proven coordinator, I’ll be all for it.
Maroon and Gold Headquarters: The Daily Gopher
Completely agree
As it relates to hiring a proven, sitting head coach, I’ve been much more interested in his proven experience in developing players and developing a coaching staff. In my opinion, The Gophers will be hard pressed to match Brewster’s ability to recruit. I’m OK with that, but it’s a MUST that we get a guy who can develop players and coaches better than Brewster. I’ve cited that as the main reason why I’d love to have Brewster on my coaching staff, but he was way over-matched in his ability to be a head coach.
wow
you are like the Vice President.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Nov 23, 2010 2:33 PM CST up reply actions
Bellotti, Like Mike Riley @ OSU have an ability....
to take 2 and 3 star recruits (and walk-ons for that matter) and build them into men who can perform admirably within a system.
For a small state like Oregon to have not 1 but 2 successful Pac 10 programs is amazing.
While I have issues with Bellotti, they don’t in any way take away from the man’s ability to coach up players. He also was great at surrounding himself with assistants who possessed the same attributes.
Whoever is hired to lead the Gophers going forward, he will absolutely need to be a guy who can find diamonds in the rough and turn them into stars on the field.
This match-up...
…yawn.
I didn’t vote for either of them in the prior match-ups. I don’t think Bellotti would want to come here or stay. He seems flighty to me. I don’t understand the allure of Calhoun. He isn’t bad, but isn’t like Air Force had problems before he got there. I actually like Air Force and think they can play with anyone in the country.
Why not talk about Dick Bumpas or Jim Heacock?
I find it interesting that the U of M talks to guys like Brady Hoke. They AGAIN reach out to Gary Patterson (who said no), but they have refused to even talk to guys that have statistically the best defenses over the past five years.
Someone else made a great point earlier that the people that have the best success in transplanting to a Minnesota like situation are Defensive coordinators from major college programs.
Dick Bumpas ~ TCU: Go to footballoutsiders.com and research who has been the most consistent defense over the past 5 years. It’s TCU. True, they play in the MWC, but the MWC is no slouch over that same time period. The MWC is the most diverse conference in the BCS where you will play the triple option one week and play the passing spread the next. If you can X and O in that conference you can certainly scheme in the Big Ten. We all ready made the offer to Patterson, why not his D coordinator?
The draw backs on Bumpas, Texas kids know football. The marching band members know more about football in Texas then most recruits in Minnesota. Thus, I think Bumpas would face a higher challenge in having to educate any recruits he does get, but educating players is a challege at any school.
Interesting final note on Bumpas, he has had two All American DE in the past four years, Jerry Hughes and Tommy Blake. (Blake would have been a 1st round NFL pick had it not been for his personal mental collapse). His defense is also consistently producing LBs as well
Jim Heacock: The other consistent team that is producing Top 10 defenses and NFL talent is Ohio State. Again, I have no idea if the “The Ohio State University” guys want to leave. Heacock has been with Tressel since the Youngstown State – so he is likely very comfortable.
Every year that defense loses 4 to 6 guys either to the draft or graduation, and they consistently produce with the next level of guys.
Can we stop looking down on consistent Big Ten programs? I understand that the Big Ten is not the sexy conference like the SEC, but OSU has been on top easily for the last five years. If nothing else, breaking up Tressell’s staff serves to even the playing field for the rest of the Big Ten.
**On a side note, I am tired of Minnesotans smuggly and subtly thinking we are the best. Hence, getting Minnesota players is of utmost importance. Let a coach get players wherever he can. Boise has not succeeded because ‘all of Idaho’s best recruits are going to Boise’ Iowa has not succeeded ‘all Iowan football players should be Hawkeyes.’ Can we please give up on Minnesotans for Minnesota football? I mean I get it. It is the base, but come on . . . understand that Collegiate football is a National game now not a regional one. Coaches do not need to “close the borders” to recruit and win at the U of M. As a matter of fact, maybe they would do better to expand the borders to say the Dakotas or Chicagoland.
Finally on this point, no one criticizes Tubby for going to Canada to get players, but we need to have Minnesotans for our football team?**
Interesting
I hadn’t heard of either guy, but you make a pretty solid case for both.
However, it seems like the U is going to steer clear of assistant coaches this time around and has been focusing their search solely on current head coaches.
Jeffrick,
I think that’s a bad idea though. They need to not look at guys that are simply head coaches. I understand Brewster was a terrible coach yet there is a difference between taking a guy that has NEVER called an offense or defense and taking a coordinator that is a proven commodity from a winning program.
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