Courtesy USA Today

(December 30, 2010) Imagine you're an ESPN analyst calling Friday's Meineke Car Care Bowl and next week's GoDaddy.com Bowl when you figure that, if you'd just wanted to, you'd be coaching Oregon in college football's national championship game.

That's Mike Bellotti, who figures he recruited about 85% of the Ducks who'll play Auburn for the title and "hand-picked" Chip Kelly to coach them starting in 2009. Having quit voluntarily to become Oregon's athletics director before joining ESPN in March, Bellotti doesn't see why he wouldn't have been able to lead the Ducks to the brink of a championship: "I'd like to think so. The team we had is the team out on the field now."

At least Bellotti will be at the title game for ESPN's pre- and post-game shows and won't feign neutrality: "I want Oregon to win. Auburn people might not like that."

Not that he can't be objective. Unsure if he was eligible to vote for the Heisman — "I don't know" — he's sure Auburn's Cam Newton deserved to win: "No question he's the most unstoppable force in college football."

Bellotti was the school's winningest football coach (116-55) and in 2001 delivered the school's only final No. 2 national ranking, which might have been even higher if questionable BCS standings hadn't kept the Ducks out of the title game. In quitting coaching, he cited the need to have time for knee replacement and more family time while a son was still in high school. Bellotti also walked away with a controversial $2.3 million severance, which prompted a review from the state's attorney general because he'd had no written contract.

With all that, Bellotti suggests he might coach again somewhere next season: "Yes, there's a chance. I had some opportunities this year. … I don't know that I have to coach. But I don't know if I can live without football either."

Bellotti could offer other schools an insider's perspective on how to turn a good program into a title contender, saying Oregon's transition was built on emphasizing "speed" and spending on national recruiting. And not, he says, just from having uber-booster Phil Knight, the Nike billionaire who's coy about whether he, say, uses headphones to eavesdrop on Oregon coaches during games: "He's just a huge fan that has the wherewithal to spend huge sums of money. He doesn't demand anything or make personnel decisions."

Bellotti, who figured he'd "give this ESPN thing a year," is about to face his first real down time "and I might not like the time off." Still, he says he's past any what-ifs. "People ask me all the time if I'm sad now. No, I came to grips with this when I stepped down. It's Chip's team. I'm glad. … But there's never a good time to walk away from coaching."

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