Dec 8th, 2009
Oregon’s Chip Kelly was named Pac-10 coach of the year, and no one complained, but that doesn’t mean it was the right choice. In fact, there is no indisputable selection, because there are no guidelines to determine a coach of the year, with different people valuing very different accomplishments.
LeGarrette Blount escorted off the field by Chip Kelly after the loss to Boise State -- Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images
Usually a team’s won-loss record combined with the extent to which the team exeeded expectations are blended in a voter’s mind to arrive at an answer.
Those are certainly not the only criteria voter’s could — or should — consider, though. What about a coach who overcomes signficant obstacles to achieve a measure of success? And what about the coach who has shown over a period of time that he has elevated the program?
The final one is the criterion valued most around here, because a single season does not tell you much about a coach. Gary Crowton at BYU, Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, Ron Zook at Illinois, Dennis Erickson at Arizona State, and countless others were hailed as saviors and heaped with honors after their first season only to be targets of derision in subsequent seasons, with Crowton and Weis getting fired within four years. A coach’s first season is more a reflection of the talent he inherited than his coaching skills.
So, to be fair, there should be several Pac-10 coach-of-the-year awards, to honor the different kinds of accomplishments.
AWARD ONE: MOST SUCCESSFUL SEASON: Oregon’s Chip Kelly wins this in a landslide (and that’s why he won the official coach of the year award). The Ducks made it to the Rose Bowl and are ranked No. 7 in the country. Case closed.
AWARD TWO: EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: Washington’s Steve Sarkisian would get a few votes here for making Washington a threat against every Pac-10 team this season, including wins over USC and Cal, after the Huskies went winless last season. But the winner is Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh, who took a team that has been horrible in recent years and was picked to finish sixth this season and led it to a second-place finish. Wins over Oregon and USC showed the Cardinal could play with anyone this season. (How long Harbaugh will stay at Stanford or how long it will take him to sign a contract extension at Stanford would make good office pools.)
AWARD THREE: SAVING A SINKING SHIP: The coach who can, through his leadership, overcome adversity during the season to have a successful year should be cited somehow. Cal’s Jeff Tedford was able to get his team on the right track after two lopsdided losses to USC and Oregon to open the Pac-10 season seemed to bury the Bears. Two years ago, in a similar situation, the Bears did collapse, and it appeared they might again. Instead Cal won five of its next six games, including wins over Arizona and Stanford without star running back Jahvid Best. However, Tedford’s candidacy in this category took a major hit when the Bears stunk it up in their final regular-season game against Washington. Sarkisian did a nice job of righting Washington after it lost four straight games to win its last two, and Arizona’s Mike Stoops twice got his team back on track after tough losses to earn a Holiday Bowl berth. But the winner is Kelly, who started the season with the worst possible scenario – getting dominated by Boise State on national television, seeing his star quarterback (Jeremiah Masoli) have a horrible game, then having his star running back (LeGarrette Blunt) cause further embarrassment and problems by hitting an opposing player and having to be restrained from going after fans. A suspension followed, Kelly stuck with Masoli, and the Ducks won 10 of their next 11 games to land in the Rose Bowl for the frist time since the 1994 season.
Mike Riley will be in a bowl for the sixth time in his seven years at Oregon State and has won four of the previous five -- Associated Press photo by LM Otero
Catch this stat: Only one school has finished in the top three in the Pac-10 standings each of the past three years — Oregon State — and the Beavers have done it four seasons in a row. And this is Oregon State, folks. Before Riley came to Corvallis that would have been unimaginable. (Just as a side note, Riley is the most down-to-earth coach in America and is nice to everyone.)
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