Helf Officially Out

[Alan]

I agree if what you're saying is Helf was too soft, too nice, not animated enough. But Mullens ended the sell out streak by increased ticket prices and bringing in a different crowd, Helf has nothing to do with ticket prices and the sell out streak was over before Helf sent the team in a downward spiral.

[StevensTechU]

To pay my respects to a guy who lost his dream job:

Helfrich represented the Oregon community about as well as one could ever hope. He set a great example for being a quality person for the young men. I often have joked that for a lot of the playes, Helfrich must be the dorky white father they never had, and I mean that in the absolute best way possible. One of my favorite stories was about how Helfrich was helping clean up after an Alamo Bowl event, something you don't ever see from one of the most important and busy guys in the town. I'd surmise that we are unlikely to ever get as great a person to be our head coach again.

[jBeavertonduck]

To pay my respects to a guy who lost his dream job:

Helfrich represented the Oregon community about as well as one could ever hope. He set a great example for being a quality person for the young men. I often have joked that for a lot of the playes, Helfrich must be the dorky white father they never had, and I mean that in the absolute best way possible. One of my favorite stories was about how Helfrich was helping clean up after an Alamo Bowl event, something you don't ever see from one of the most important and busy guys in the town. I'd surmise that we are unlikely to ever get as great a person to be our head coach again.

I agree completely

[Duck24]

Exciting if true.

And gotta be thankful for Helfrich's love for this program. But unfortunately, he is just not cut out to coach the Ducks.

I think he's not cut out to coach the Ducks now.. If there was no Chip and the program went from Bellotti to Helfrich , he'd have been fine but the success Chip brought changed the projection and expectations of the job for the foreseeable future.

Mark was always in a thankless position coming in after Chip. Unless he matched Chip, he was always going to be looked down upon by a lot of fans, many of whom only showed up during Chip's time.

This gets all the likes that this forum doesn't have functionality for. That isn't an indictment of all in the Helf needs to go camp but there are a lot of "fans" that don't understand that Oregon football didn't begin in 2007. Not to get all nostalgic but Oregon took pride in the "built from within" mentality and some, including myself, are having difficulty getting past that. I thought changes needed to be made, if the right candidate presented itself, so now we will see.

As a long time Duck fan, Helf's firing is the end of an era and tradition of Duck football....... along with sellouts, hardest place to play. sad night, but all I can do as a Duck fan is see what comes.

Helfrich had already ruined all that stuff. Autzen was no longer a tough place to play, his teams weren't tough. Helfrich ended the sellout streak. That's why he was fired.

Autzen stopped becoming a tough place to play midway through Chip's tenure when they were up by 30 midway through the second quarter in most games and the Mo Center became the place to watch the game/socialize/be seen. Anyone who blames that on Helf is just lying to themselves. As for the sellout streak, we covered that like 10 threads ago. The sellout streak died years ago, the AD just continued on with the charade until they couldn't anymore.

[Duck24]

I don't buy what Pharaoh is saying at all. The "blame the young guy" crap makes no sense when you consider the young guys were the bright spot this season. It just doesn't fit the narrative with how things played out on the field.

If you follow Rob Moseley on twitter, after the CW he said something along the lines of "some of the older guys were focused on themselves" which led to the void in upper classmen leadership. You heard similar things from guys like Tyree Robinson after the CW as well.

I'm starting to think that guys like Pharaoh were the issue this season and those texts back it up in my mind.

You're completely wrong, the young guys out on the field over their heads is a large part of why the defense failed. The young guys on the O line is large part of why Royce struggled this year.

Well then we agree to disagree. This team lacked senior leadership in every sense of the word, which has been corroborated by guys inside like Moseley and well as other non-senior members of the team.

[shoparound]

I was in the visiting team locker room after the Civil War game last weekend. And after the players left, I saw Helfrich helping clean up the visiting team locker room with the student interns. Very classy person. You will not see that with any other head coach.

[maxduck]

I don't buy what Pharaoh is saying at all. The "blame the young guy" crap makes no sense when you consider the young guys were the bright spot this season. It just doesn't fit the narrative with how things played out on the field.

If you follow Rob Moseley on twitter, after the CW he said something along the lines of "some of the older guys were focused on themselves" which led to the void in upper classmen leadership. You heard similar things from guys like Tyree Robinson after the CW as well.

I'm starting to think that guys like Pharaoh were the issue this season and those texts back it up in my mind.

You are not alone. From former college coach Ken Woody's column before the Civil War and referencing the Utah game...

There are rumors that Oregon’s locker room has been fractured this year. Perhaps the total team effort last week was because some of the ”dissension” was not suited up and on the sidelines for the Ducks.


Is there any doubt he was referring to Brown?

[Duck24]

I was in the visiting team locker room after the Civil War game last weekend. And after the players left, I saw Helfrich helping clean up the visiting team locker room with the student interns. Very classy person. You will not see that with any other head coach.

Outside of coaching pedigree, the book on Helf is that he is a great guy all around. If people haven't, they should take a moment to read what the national media folks had to say about him. From Rece Davis to Kirk Herbstreit to Stewart Mandel and beyond, all had nothing but praise for what a nice, genuine guy he was, but acknowledged its just business.

Neil Everett even took about a minute last night on SportsCenter to praise Helfrich the man as well as a lot of the long time assistants who have been with the program since before some of us were born.

[Oregonian]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

[QuackininBama]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

Geez no. He will make us BEG for the "good ole Helf days".

[duckfan22]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

Please no......his teams have done nothing...he has had so many off field issues.
if they hire him i may stop watching....Id rather see them go after Kiffen before kelly and
i hate Kiffen....

[Duck24]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

Because he has such a great history of hiring coordinators amongst other coaching shortcomings/temperament problems.

[buckmarkduck]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

They probably heard Kelly to UO, and decided they should throw Brian out there and see if it sticks. They don't want him, and we certainly don't want him.

[UOducksTK1]

Do you think they would fire Helfrich if they didn't have a good idea of who would take over next?

Maybe? They fired EK and royally screwed up that search. Then, by some miracle, landed a home run in Altman.

Can we win lotto twice??.

Yeah, but with EK and the basketball program we were already at such a low. This football team has been a national powerhouse for nearly a decade. Way more money at risk. Way more W's at risk. I'd like to think this is much more thought out. Additionally, getting a big name coach for football seems way more plausible than our basketball program.

[UOducksTK1]

Rumblings of Brian Kelly on some ND forums right now

Please no......his teams have done nothing...he has had so many off field issues.
if they hire him i may stop watching....Id rather see them go after Kiffen before kelly and
i hate Kiffen....

Agreed, ew.