Tag: Mike Bellotti

History of the Oregon Ducks series against the Illinois Fighting Illini

Check out the short history between the Oregon Ducks and the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Like many of the traditional Big Ten opponents on the Oregon Ducks 2024 schedule, the Illinois Fighting Illini don’t have much history against Oregon. They’ve played three times in their history, but Saturday’s game in Autzen Stadium will be their most significant matchup to date.

The first meeting between these two teams was in 1970, with the Fighting Illini winning 20-16 in Champaign. Those Ducks were coached by Jerry Frei in his second-to-last season with the program. Oregon finished 6-4-1 that year and didn’t play in a bowl game.

The next two games between these teams came in the nineties as a part of a home-and-home series. Oregon went to Champaign in 1993, winning 13-7, and two years later, they won 34-31 in Eugene.

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The 1993 season was one of Rich Brooks’ final seasons as head coach of the Ducks, wrapping up a legendary coaching career. Brooks left after the 1994 season to coach the St. Louis Rams, and he was succeeded by his offensive coordinator: Mike Bellotti. The Ducks 1995 matchup against Illinois was Bellotti’s first home game as a head coach, and he went on to become the winningest coach in Oregon Ducks history.

This week’s game is the first time both teams have been ranked for any of their matchups and the first time either team has been ranked inside the top 20. Oregon definitely has the edge, but Illinois is a good team. There aren’t many games left on the schedule, so both teams will be heavily motivated this week.

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Oregon Ducks named one of most influential teams in history of college football

Chip Kelly’s first season in Eugene as the offensive coordinator changed Duck history and college football forever.

Mike Belotti’s coaching career was going fairly smoothly at Oregon in 2006, but the offense was growing a bit stagnant. The Ducks were welcoming one of the more mobile quarterbacks that contained an absolute gun for an arm in Dennis Dixon.

In order to take advantage of his unique skillset, Bellotti hired a no-name offensive coordinator from New Hampshire and unknowingly changed the history of not only Duck football history, but college football history.

That coach of course is Chip Kelly.

His unique style of offense propelled Oregon to a 9-4 record and the Ducks were No. 2 in the nation before Dixon got hurt. But the style of offense was there and it took a few years for opposing defenses to catch up.

All of this made ESPN name the 2007 team as the No. 15 most influential team ($) in college football history. According to writer Bill Connelly, the Ducks gave the entire sport a jolt of energy.

There might not have been a more symbolic moment for the spread offense revolution than watching Oregon gain 624 yards and score 39 points, including a Dixon touchdown on a fake Statue of Liberty play on Michigan and its old-school defense early that season. — Bill Connelly

There have been many other influential Oregon teams, such as the Marcus Mariota teams or the Bo Nix teams, but there’s no debate that Chip Kelly, Dennis Dixon, and Jonathan Stewart changed the game.

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Where Oregon football finished in every Associated Press poll since 2000

Where Duck football began and finished in every Associated Press poll since 2000.

Oregon Ducks football finishing in the Top 10 of the final Associated Press in becoming a regular thing nowadays. Believe it or not, it wasn’t always like that.

The Ducks were a pretty good team in the early part of this century, but it wasn’t until Chip Kelly took over the reins from Mike Bellotti that Oregon started to dominate the Pac-12 and be a force on the national scene.

Now it would be a huge disappointment if the Ducks didn’t finish in the AP Top 10 and win their bowl game. Both were accomplished this season and as the Ducks go into the Big Ten for 2024 and beyond, plus the expansion of the College Football Playoffs, there’s no reason not to expect Oregon not to be a playoff hopeful on a yearly basis.

We decided to look back on the history of Oregon football and see where the Ducks began and finished in each AP poll since 2000.

Will Dan Lanning follow in past Oregon coaches’ footsteps with Year 2 success?

Dan Lanning is one of 5 Oregon coaches to win 10 games, and just the 3rd to do so in Year 1. Will Year 2 be just as impressive?

By almost any measure, Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning had a very successful first year in Eugene last season. He became just the fifth coach in Oregon history to notch 10 wins, and the third to do so in his first season with the team.

While there are certainly things that could have gone better — losing to rivals Oregon State and Washington in the same year is never something you want — it’s clear that Oregon fans should be encouraged and excited about what’s to come for the Ducks. Lanning has proved that he has an elite football mind, and his recruiting prowess has continued what Mario Cristobal started in Eugene, bringing some of the best players in the nation to the pacific northwest.

The question going forward will be to see how high the ceiling is in the future.

If you look back through the Oregon record books, Duck coaches have seen some great success in year two with the program. Both Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich made it to the national championship game, while Mario Cristobal won a Rose Bowl. So how will Dan Lanning’s second season with the Ducks stack up compared to his predecessors? It’s impossible to say, but he’s on a great trajectory at the very least.

In order to get a good breakdown, I went back through what I like to refer to as the “modern era” of Oregon coaches. While the Ducks have been around since 1894, a total of 39 head coaches came through the program, oftentimes only spending one or two seasons in Eugene. Until the legendary Len Casanova came along in 1951, no single coach had spent more than 5 seasons with the program. So that’s going to be where I start our modern era. Since 1951, there have been only 11 head coaches at Oregon.

So how did those coaches fare in their second year with the program? Let’s take a look:

How Dan Lanning fared in comparison to other Oregon first-year head coaches

Dan Lanning notched 10 wins and a bowl victory in his first season with the Ducks. How does that compare to other first-year coaches in Oregon history?

A lot of time after the end of the 2022 college football season has been spent looking at first-year head coaches and assessing how they did at their respective programs.

For Dan Lanning, the season-long grades have been quite fair, with many crediting him and his team for an impressive 10-win season that resulted in a respectable bowl win and a heap of excitement and anticipation for the future in Eugene. While a lot of time has been spent comparing Lanning to other first-year head coaches in the nation, we wanted to take a second to look back at Oregon history and see how he compares to other Oregon coaches in their first years with the Ducks.

Lanning was able to notch 10 wins, but losses to both Oregon State and Washington were tough to swallow. How does that compare to the likes of Mario Cristobal, or Mark Helfrich, or Mike Bellotti?

In order to get a good breakdown, I went back through what I like to refer to as the “modern era” of Oregon coaches. While the Ducks have been around since 1894, a total of 39 head coaches came through the program, oftentimes only spending one or two seasons in Eugene. Until the legendary Len Casanova came along in 1951, no single coach had spent more than 5 seasons with the program. So that’s going to be where I start our modern era. Since 1951, there have been only 11 head coaches at Oregon.

How did Lanning’s first year compare to the other 10 guys when it comes to the start of their tenures in Eugene? Let’s take a look:

Report: Defensive coach Bob Gregory will return to Eugene as an analyst

According to On3.com, Dan Lanning has hired former Oregon DB coach Bob Gregory as an analyst.

Sometimes you can come home again.

According to Matt Zenitz of On3.com sports, defensive coach Bob Gregory was hired on to the Oregon football coaching staff.

Oregon is hiring Gregory as an analyst. He was in Eugene as the Ducks’ defensive backs coach from 1998-2000 under Mike Belotti. For the last eight seasons, Gregory was on the Washington Huskies staff.

He spent the 2021 year as the Huskies defensive coordinator and eventually the interim head coach after Jimmy Lake was handed his walking papers.

Dan Lanning is definitely hiring the who’s who when it comes to defensive coaching talent with the additions of Tosh Lupoi and Matt Powledge.

With all of Washington’s problems last year, defense wasn’t one of them. The Huskies were third in the Pac-12 last season giving up just 323 yards and 21.5 points a game.

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