Some quick notes after getting back from the press conference today announcing officially Bellotti’s stepping down as head football coach to become Special Counsel to athletic director Pat Kilkenny until July 1, when he becomes AD.
- Bellotti said he made his decision Wednesday through Thursday, after meeting with former University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer and talking with new president Richard Lariviere Thursday. He said he made the decision Thursday night.
- Kelly said he has known about the decision for 36 hours. He had operated under the assumption all winter that Bellotti would let him know what he was thinking, and Bellotti did late this week.
-Bellotti had a staff meeting at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning, where he told his staff, and he said he nearly thought he wouldn’t make it through without breaking down completely. Before the 10 a.m. team meeting where he told the team, he said he called between 10-15 people of the decision, saying he got better at telling people his decision as the more calls he made. Telling the team was emotional for Bellotti, who Kelly said cried when he broke down halfway through his speech to his team. Kelly said he cried, as well as several players, because of the emotion and finality of the decision.
-As for basketball, AD Kilkenny said Bellotti won’t be much in the loop for the decisions on basketball personnel with Bev Smith and Ernie Kent. Kilkenny will meet with Smith early next week, presumably to fire her, and will meet with Kent in about a week. Bellotti said he expected to be in the loop with the decisions, but downplayed his importance at this stage with making evaluations of other coaches. It sounded like he didn’t want to get drawn into the possible firing of Kent.
-Kelly wants to have a new offensive coordinator in by the beginning of spring football practices March 30, and believes he can. He said he expected there would be “more than plenty of qualified candidates” for the job, also he said his fingerprint would always be on the offense.
