Official announcement on Belloti/Kelly transition:

[woundedknees]

http://oregon.scout.com/2/847296.html

Bellotti is excited about the "challenge of a new job" and stated that he is "very comfortable turning over the [head coaching] job to Chip Kelly", saying that, "Chip has earned [Bellotti's] respect and the admiration of [the Oregon] coaches and players during his short time [at Oregon]."

Moving to the position of Athletic Director is something that Bellotti has considered doing for "a couple of years", stating that the reason he didn't decide to step down before the 2007-08 season was because he was "disgusted" by the state of the football following the embarrassing 38-8 loss to BYU in the 2006 Las Vegas Bowl.

"Very rarely," said Kelly, "do you have the opportunity to become a head coach in college football and to be able to come into a situation [like the one at Oregon]; usually you get the opportunity to be a head coach because you have to turn a program around. You get the chance to take a team, that finished 9th in the country last year, that's one of the pre-eminent programs in the country, that has a name no matter where you are when you travel through this country, people know who the University of Oregon is...and to be picked to be the successor to Mike Bellotti is really tough for me to put into words."

Kelly said he has given "all thought" as to whether or not he'll call the offensive plays next season. "There's a process that you have to go through at any state institution, in terms of a hiring process," Kelly stated "I'm going to go out and actively interview people in the next coming weeks and we'll hopefully have a [coach] in place come [March] 30th." Kelly went on, saying that he's "looking for the best football coach out there...I'm going to scour the country and I'm going to hire the best person that is the best fit for this football program." Kelly admitted that he could maintain offensive coordinator duties, but wasn't going to be hasty in his decision-making.

Note that Kelly says nothing in the article about replacing Allioti...

[Tray Dub]

He definitely wouldn't comment on Allioti in his introduction press conference or whatever that was. And anyways, he won't replace the d-coordinator this close to spring ball in his first season. That could be a disaster.

Sounds like he won't be the OC, though it's not for sure. I would guess that if he's willing to get a new OC with this little time to prepare before the season, he would really only consider guys who understand he has worked with before (Day?)

[briarduck]

I'm hoping the offense stays in CK hands, we were looking pretty unstoppable and I'd hate for that top change!

And by the sounds of it NA will be around for another year...

GO DUCKS!!

[gofightingducks]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/

Good to see some love for Bellotti, a well respected coach, still front page news on ESPN with several articles and a video about Bellotti, Yahoo also had the story as front page for the last couple of days.

Great job by Bellotti!!!

[MFRDuckFan]

You can bet Chip will keep a tight hold of the reins for this year. Even if he hires someone he has worked with, no way he isn't going to call the plays. You may even see him calling plays for 2 seasons until his hire is almost a complete clone of himself. I don't see him giving up that kind of control easily or too soon.

[woundedknees]

I do believe there will be a stricter standard of accountability with Kelly...