Canzano: Bellotti is a spin master trying to save his job. Also, Ducks in China?

John Canzano just can't leave Oregon and Mike Bellotti alone. First, he got on the coach for openly saying Dennis Dixon should've stayed in Eugene this summer, and now he's accusing Bellotti of being a "spin master", and deflecting the Ducks' shortcomings over the past few years on others... coaches, players, etc. So what?

This one guy (in the blog comments) brought up this point, which I have to agree with... Bellotti has brought the program success. Period. Read below:

I think a lot of us "old" duck fans still can't quite believe we are here, where Oregon could be seen as a national power. I am 36. I graduated from high school in 89, the fall I went away to college was the year Oregon went to the Independence Bowl, their first bowl in over 20 years.

Fans who have been here that long remember the pre league games against Pacific and San Jose State in Autzen that went down to the wire through the late 70's and 80's. We remember the years like when Musgrave led the team to a great start, only to break his collar bone against Arizona State and the season was lost. We remember great individual players mired on losing teams who gave their all.

We saw the Rich Brooks era (89-94), after waiting over 12 years for him to build the program, we went through those inconsistent years where we'd make a low level bowl, then go 3-8, then another low level bowl, then 4-7. Then, Kenny Wheaton intercepts a pass and suddenly, the Ducks are in the Rose Bowl. Most of us didn't cry when Brooks left, he was a plodder, slowly, painfully building from perrenial doormat to occasionally successful, and a lot of us wanted something new after 18 years of Brooks.

Belotti has been coaching now for 12 years. In that 12 years, we have 10 bowl games, we have 2 New Years Day bowls, we have shared titles, national relevence, and cutting edge glitz. To a lot of us old Duck fans, the last dozen years has felt like a long term fluke, like if we push away Belotti, we go back to the 80's. We associate the success with the man who led the team during it.

There are problems. The collapses the last few years, the bowl losses, the questionable recruits, but for many of us, its frightening to hold Belotti accountable. Its like when the Kings (I am still a rabid Duck and Blazer fan though I live in Yuba City near Sac) fired Adelman, the people cheered, but they didn't have a plan. They weren't firing Adelman for Phil Jackson, or even Nate McMillan. Change for its own sake rarely works out.

Well stated. Also, the Ducks are working on a non-conference game with Boise State, in China of all places. Stay tuned.