Less than 24 hours after OR fired its head coach for the first time in 40 years, several players addressed the media for the first time.
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A timeline for hiring a replacement was not immediately announced.
The next three times OR hired a coach, it promoted the offensive coordinator. San Francisco’s poor record is why many wonder if Kelly would want to go back to college football. OR fired Kelly’s successor Mark Helfrich on Tuesday.
OR announced Tuesday night that it was parting ways with Helfrich after four seasons at the helm. Our pool will be broad and diverse.
“In my opinion, I thought we were bouncing back and going upwards”, Dye said.
OR has fired a football coach for the first time in 40 years.
Baldwin is one of the top coaches at the FCS level and has ties to the Pacific Northwest after a playing career at Central Washington, followed by a coaching stint at the school from 1994-02 and 2007.
Kelly has a big offseason approaching with San Francisco as the roster is due to a makeover.
Helfrich has been with the team for four years and had a total record of 37 -16. Huskies quarterback Jake Browning threw for six touchdowns in the victory, which snapped a 12-game losing streak to the rival Ducks.
OR announced on Tuesday that it has fired head coach Mark Helfrich. But he wouldn’t be the last coach to first lose his accumulation of goodwill and then his job for failing to match the unmatchable standard for success he helped to create.
According to people with knowledge of the situation, Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck and Boise State’s Bryan Harsin will figure prominently in the search for Oregon’s next coach. Not enough wins on the recruiting trail.
Then again, OR may not have much time before it needs to make a call for a new head coach.
When asked if he planned to stay with the 49ers, Kelly responded via ESPN, “Yep, so we’re all done with that, I hope”. Last year, the Ducks brought in graduate transfer Vernon Adams, whose season was marred by a finger injury. Went 28-15 as head coach at USC in 31/2 years from 2010-13 after going 7-6 as coach at Tennessee in 2009. OR allowed an average of 41.4 points per game, ranked 125th nationally.
Kelly said he and Helfrich talked Wednesday morning after the news broke. The Ducks’ season ended without a bowl game for the first time since 2004. Won six conference titles in three leagues during his tenure. First, the loss was to Nebraska, coached by former Oregon State Coach Mike Riley. Served as head coach of Rutgers from 2001-11 before leaving to becoem head coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 and 2013.
There was little positive to be said about the season for the Ducks. “It’s really unfortunate to see him go”. Under Holgorsen’s direction, West Virginia is 45-30 and is poised to reach 10 wins with a victory over Baylor in Week 14.
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2014: This season was the crown jewel of Helfrich’s run and the history of the program. As the coach of an National Football League team in the midst of a 10-game losing streak – and who enjoyed his greatest coaching success in Eugene – Kelly has been connected by many to the OR job for the past couple of months. Helfrich had three winning seasons, but the Ducks fell to 4-8 this season. “And for the first time in decades, we’ll seek a coach outside our current staff”.
