August 15, 2004

The Coaching Hot Seat: Part V - The Pac-10

This will be a multi part series, showcasing the last 3 seasons of results of various major football conferences, and how secure certain coaches will be in retaining their jobs at the end of this season and beyond. Also, I've highlighted what schools, if any, are shifting conferences before the 2005 season. Remember that moving conferences typically means more money, which ratchets up the pressure cooker that college coaches find themselves in today.

Part V - The Pacific Ten

Arizona

Head Coach: Mike Stoops (1st Year - 0-0)

• 2003 - 2-10


• 2002 - 4-8


• 2001 - 4-7

Arizona State

Head coach: Dirk Koetter (4th year: 18-19)

• 2003 - 6-6


• 2002 - 8-6


• 2001 - 4-7

California

Head Coach: Jeff Tedford (3rd year: 15-11)

• 2003 - 8-6


• 2002 - 7-5


• 2001 - 1-10

Oregon

Head coach: Mike Bellotti (10th year: 75-34)

• 2003 - 8-5


• 2002 - 7-6


• 2001 - 11-1

Oregon State

Head coach: Mike Riley (2nd year: 8-5)

• 2003 - 8-5


• 2002 - 8-5


• 2001 - 5-6

Stanford

Head coach: Buddy Teevens (3rd year: 6-16)

• 2003 - 4-7


• 2002 - 2-9


• 2001 - 9-3
  

UCLA

Head coach: Karl Dorrell (2nd year: 6-7)

• 2003 - 6-7


• 2002 - 8-5


• 2001 - 7-4

USC

Head coach: Pete Carroll (4th year: 29-9)

• 2003 - 12-1


• 2002 - 11-2


• 2001 - 6-6

Washington

Head coach: Keith Gilbertson (2nd year: 6-6)

• 2003 - 6-6


• 2002 - 7-6


• 2001 - 8-4

Washington State

Head coach: Bill Doba (2nd year: 9-3)

• 2003 - 9-3


• 2002 - 10-3


• 2001 - 10-2

The newest member of the Pac-10 coaching fraternity is former Oklahoma Asst. Coach Mike Stoops, who takes over the reigns at Arizona.

This was mild after last season's turnover, which saw four schools acquire new head men, Washington State, Washington, UCLA and Oregon State.

WSU's Bill Doba continued the Cougars winning tradition, and has no worries about his own job security. Oregon State's Mike Riley was regarded highly enough a few years ago to be picked to head the NFL's San Diego Chargers. His stock, so to speak, may have fallen a bit from those days, but last season's bowl appearance was a good first step in Riley's second run at the school.

UW's Keith Gilbertson and UCLA's Karl Dorrell find themselves in a much more perilous position. Gilbertson, promoted after the dumping of his predecessor Neuheisel, was regarded as an offensive guru coming in. But his rookie season was not kind to Gilbertson. The team struggled, Gilbertson was admonished by the NCAA for his involvement in basketball pools, and he was given the dreaded vote of confidence from the outgoing Washington AD. The coach now has to deal with a new AD, and has only this season guaranteed on his contract. Unless there are some improvements in Seattle, look for changes.

Dorrell is another coach in trouble. Over the winter, he turned down an offered extension, saying he had not done enough to earn it of yet. A surprise move indeed, especially considering how badly UCLA played for most of the season. Considering that the school's bitter rival USC won both the Pac-10 and a share of the National Championship last season, playing a far second fiddle will not sit well with UCLA's fans.

Rounding out California, are two of the most secure coaches in the Pac-10, Pete Carroll and Jeff Tedford. Tedford is one of the hot names in coaching, having turned a dead end California program into a pre-season Top 25 club this year. The only thing USC fans have to worry about is Carroll getting an offer he can't refuse from the NFL.

Stanford's Buddy Teevens is another Pac-10 coach who's seat is heating up. Filling in for the job that Tyrone Willingham did is no easy task, but Teevens was, like Gilbertson, a highly regarded offensive minded coach who was expected to keep Stanford in the top half of the Pac-10. The Cardinal is not a school that takes losing well, with the Palo Alto school regularly winning the Sears Cup as the top Collegiate Athletic program. A third straight poor effort from his program, and Teevens will most likely be shown the door.

Keep moving up the coast and you'll reach the dean of the Pac-10, Oregon's Mike Bellotti. Bellotti, along with being the most tenured of any of the Pac-10's head coaches, has provided the Pac-10 with two other head coaches, Jeff Tedford and Dirk Koetter.. Other than the persistent rumors that Bellotti could be moving to other pastures, he has no worries from Oregon's Athletic Department.

We'll close this out with Arizona State's Koetter, who is on an increasingly short leash this season. Koetter, who came to the Sun Devils from Boise State, has had one quality season bookended by two dismal ones. Koetter's former school, the Broncos, have continued winning at their previous clip, which has caused local columnists and radio hosts to wonder who was really running the show in Boise. ASU's AD has come out saying that Koetter will be the head coach in 2005, no matter what the results of 2004 are. Whether that is the case if the Sun Devils are down again this season, remains to be seen.

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