August 30, 2005

The 2005 Coaching Hot Seat - Part V - The Pac 10

With the wrap up of C-USA, to go with the ACC, Big East and Big Ten all complete, it's now time to look west, towards the land of the Pac-10.

Part V - The Pacific Ten

Arizona
Head Coach: Mike Stoops (2nd Year - 3-8)
-2004 - 3-8
-2003 - 2-10
-2002 - 4-8
-2001 - 4-7

Arizona State
Head coach: Dirk Koetter (5th year: 27-22)
-2004 - 9-3
-2003 - 6-6
-2002 - 8-6
-2001 - 4-7

California
Head Coach: Jeff Tedford (4th year: 25-13)
-2004 - 10-2
-2003 - 8-6
-2002 - 7-5
-2001 - 1-10

Oregon
Head coach: Mike Bellotti (11th year: 80-40)
-2004 - 5-6
-2003 - 8-5
-2002 - 7-6
-2001 - 11-1

Oregon State
Head coach: Mike Riley (3rd year: 15-10)
-2004 - 7-5
-2003 - 8-5
-2002 - 8-5
-2001 - 5-6

Stanford
Head coach: Walt Harris (1st year: 0-0)
-2004 - 4-7
-2003 - 4-7
-2002 - 2-9
-2001 - 9-3

UCLA
Head coach: Karl Dorrell (3rd year: 12-13)
-2004 - 6-6
-2003 - 6-7
-2002 - 8-5
-2001 - 7-4

USC
Head coach: Pete Carroll (5th year: 42-9)
-2004 - 13-0
-2003 - 12-1
-2002 - 11-2
-2001 - 6-6

Washington
Head coach: Tyrone Willingham (1st year: 0-0)
-2004 - 1-10
-2003 - 6-6
-2002 - 7-6
-2001 - 8-4

Washington State
Head coach: Bill Doba (3rd year: 14-9)
-2004 - 5-6
-2003 - 9-3
-2002 - 10-3
-2001 - 10-2

2004 Wrap - Well, we had Kevin Gilbertson, Buddy Teevens, Dirk Koetter and Karl Dorrell pegged for the hot seat, and two of those gentlemen are looking elsewhere for work. The other two will be candidates for the 2005 hot seat.

2005 will see the rookie Pac-10 seasons of two veteran head coaches - Former Notre Dame and Stanford Head Coach Tyrone Willingham and former Pitt skipper Walt Harris. Willingham is seemingly in a much better position than Harris, as Washington, despite being a program that has seen its fair share of turmoil in the last few years, has resourced matched by maybe a dozen schools across the country.

Willingham can point to a national championship in the not so distant past of UW, and its facilities are reportedly only bested by Oregon in the Pac-10. Harris, on the other hand, may find himself in a more difficult situation. Harris is a West Coast guy, and Willingham and Dennis Green have proven that you can win at Stanford, so things could turn around for the Cardinal with Harris. But Stanford fans may not like the similarities that Harris bears to his predecessor, Buddy Teevens. Both are coaches were well known offensive gurus, and both were run out of town in their previous jobs.

Harris did have success at Pitt, but he will be saddled with academic restrictions in recruiting he did not have at Pitt. Add to that the fact that Stanford has been considered a mid level, stepping stone job for some time now. Harris got onto the hot seat after repeatedly dipping his toe in job waters for greener pastures year after year, so it's curious because his move from Pitt to Stanford is a lateral move at best. It got bad enough that despite a BCS bowl appearance last year, the school had enough of Harris and made no effort to stop him from moving on to his next encounter.

Beyond the two newcomers, there are really only two individuals to keep an eye on for 2005, and both are repeats from 2004.

Karl Dorrell at UCLA, bears the unique problem of trying to coexist in the same town as two time national champ USC, which in turn makes any USC/UCLA comparison look like the Bruins are playing checkers will the Trojans are playing chess. It's not exactly fair, as the Bruins did make a bowl game last year (before getting smacked by Wyoming). But don't count out that USC's success eventually did in Dorrell's predecessor, Bob Toledo, who even won the Pac-10 a few years back. So the inevitable "Why can't that be us" mentality will take over sooner or later. Question is how long Dorrell can last until that sets in.

The other hot seat contender is Dirk Koetter, and this has little to do with what happened on the field last season. ASU had two embarrassing incidents in the off-season, one of which included RB Loren Wade allegedly killing a former teammate outside a nightclub. In the public investigation in the weeks afterward, it was revealed that other ASU sports coaches had reported to Koetter problems involving Wade, including him brandishing a gun in and around campus and Koetter apparently moved to sweep those under the rug and made no moves to report them to school or police authorities. Wade also had a lengthy police record, according to published reports, that was known to the coaching staff. This marks the 2nd consecutive starting RB in trouble, as the Sun Devils cut Hakim Hill in January, after several run-ins during his short stint at ASU, including a DUI, a theft and a sexual assault.

ASU Athletic Director Gene Smith took the same job at Ohio State not long before the Wade incident, and ASU now has a new Athletic Director in house. The official report issued by ASU about the indecent said Koetter and former AD Smith made "errors in judgment" throughout the Wade case, and put the responsibility of cleaning up the Athletic Dept. directly at the feet of the University President, who vowed that things will change. Another winning season will go a long way towards soothing the tithing masses in Tempe, but another bad year following a good one, as has been the Koetter MO at ASU, would not be advisable if he wants to hang around.

Now for the rest of this motley crew. Mike Stoops is still on his Tucson honeymoon, and Mike Riley has two solid seasons under his belt in his second go 'round at Oregon State. Bill Doba's cougars took a step back last year, but WSU is a small school with a big time history, they will give him some time to reverse last years losing record.

Mike Belotti, architect of the Oregon style offense which forms the backbone of the current attack used by high fliers Boise State, ASU and Cal, has gone back to the drawing board implementing a new spread offense after UO had one of their worst seasons in years. He's earned himself several years of adversity with the Ducks.

And Jeff Tedford, with his brand new long term extension, and Pete Carroll, with USC seemingly unbeatable year after year, are going no where anytime soon, much to the chagrin of the rest of the Pac-10.

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