Willie, we dodged a bullet!

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Merganzer
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Merganzer »

The Helfrich era was a time when a friend of most of ours got a job that turns out he wasn't up to. We saw that early when his mantra was, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". That was fine, until it really was broke, and he couldn't fix it. It seemed like it was happening, but it wasn't obvious until we could see the destruction of the team that occurred because of Helfrich and his staff's complete failure at keeping the culture alive, and the recruiting to keep it going. He had to go.
Enter Willie. Again we couldn't see what was happening while it was happening. But, the hiring of Taggart was the best thing that could have happened to Oregon football. The second best was him leaving...but pretty much everything that came with him stayed.
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Phalanx
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Phalanx »

I see a lot of posts in this thread giving credit to Taggart for hiring Leavitt and the others. I'm still curious if going after a coach like Leavitt with all that money was even an option for Helfrich, and who actually hired both Pellum and Leavitt, whether it was the head coaches or the A.D. I still believe Helfrich would be doing the same or better with the team if he had this caliber of coaches surrounding him that Taggart had. Pellum was a disaster on defense, but the offense was always good, except for the lack of QB recruiting, which is a big negative. I give full credit to Helfrich for finding and developing Mariota, and for leading the team to the best win in Oregon history in his second season. I wish he was still the OC at Oregon, but judging from Chicago's first drive tonight, it seems like Helfrich is doing his thing in the NFL pretty well, so good luck to him. I'm really glad to see the amazing improvement in recruiting - that is a definite advantage over the Helfrich era.
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by maxduck »

Wasn't Helfrich also involved in recruiting Justin Herbert? I think we own him at least a thank you for that.
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lukeyrid13
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by lukeyrid13 »

I think all of his coordinator hires were poor. Pellum, Hoke and Lubick were all subpar. The drop off from alliotti and frost to those guys was the problem.

He also lost his 'voice' with the team. He just isn't/wasn't an alpha and it caught up to him.
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by jimmy12 »

I think you're wrong about Lubick. When the Ducks hired him the WRs actually started to develop.

Helf let loyalty get in the way of progression. Pellum was dreadful. Neil was angry. Hoke? I don't even know where to begin with that one. I don't know how you hire someone who has never been as a DC, as your DC? Did they not look at his background? He is a DL coach. That's it. It was his biggest, most important hire and he WHIFFED.

Question, would the Ducks have been better off promoting Frost? My answer is absolutely. Helf was a nice guy, but not a head man. Frost was a mediocre WR coach and a mediocre OC, but has made a very good HC.
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Alan
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Alan »

maxduck wrote:Wasn't Helfrich also involved in recruiting Justin Herbert? I think we own him at least a thank you for that.
I feel I recall correctly there was no real recruiting Herbert, he got an offer yes. But he was hurt his senior season of high school and didn't get much attention or offers. So if I'm correct, Herbert was a local Eugene kid with little or no offers and the Ducks had a spot, not much recruiting needed. What's funny is Marcus was in the same boat except Hawaii didn't offer, his only offers were from the Ducks and Huskies..... keep those unknown and unwanted QB's coming! Lol
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by chapelhillduck »

jimmy12 wrote:I think you're wrong about Lubick. When the Ducks hired him the WRs actually started to develop.

Helf let loyalty get in the way of progression. Pellum was dreadful. Neil was angry. Hoke? I don't even know where to begin with that one. I don't know how you hire someone who has never been as a DC, as your DC? Did they not look at his background? He is a DL coach. That's it. It was his biggest, most important hire and he WHIFFED.

Question, would the Ducks have been better off promoting Frost? My answer is absolutely. Helf was a nice guy, but not a head man. Frost was a mediocre WR coach and a mediocre OC, but has made a very good HC.
Frost would have been gone in 3 years to Nebraska. Might not have fallen so far as a program, but Frost wasn't staying in Eugene.


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jimmy12
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by jimmy12 »

I agree that he would have eventually left. The question for me is would we have fallen so far. I don't think Frost would have let that happen.
duckfan22
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by duckfan22 »

Frost would have left as has been said. The thing would be he would would have taken most
of his staff with him. Then Oregon is starting from scratch as when Slick took over. At least when
slick left a lot of the staff saw through his weaknesses and stayed here. Willie leaving is a blessing
for the ducks.
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by AshlandDuck »

I find it interesting that Helf coasted off of Chip's success, but Chip somehow didn't coast off of Bellotti's success. Like with Bellotti, Chip was the OC and helped in recruiting and identifying the talent that led to Chip's success with Bellotti's recruits. That 2008 class was a great one - with Bellotti in charge. But Helfrich gets ZERO credit for being OC under Chip when helping with recruiting and identifying talent. A lot of hypocrisy here. Always forget too that it was Chip who basically anointed Helfrich. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the entirety of the Helfrich era, but I also think he deserves credit for being the HC at the height of his success. People also seem to forget that if Vernon Adams had never hurt his hand the 2015 team would have likely played in the playoff.
Last edited by AshlandDuck on Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Duck07
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Duck07 »

AshlandDuck wrote:I find it interesting that Helf coasted off of Chip's success, but Chip somehow didn't coast off of Bellotti's success. Like with Bellotti, Chip was the OC and helped in recruiting and identifying the talent that led to Chip's success with Bellotti's recruits. That 2008 class was a great one - with Bellotti in charge. But Helfrich gets ZERO credit for being OC under Chip when helping with recruiting and identifying talent. A lot of hypocrisy here. Always forget too that it was Chip who basically anointed Helfrich. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the entirety of the Helfrich era, but I also think he deserve credit for being the HC at the height of his success. People also seem to forget that if Vernon Adams had never hurt his hand the 2015 team would have likely played in the playoff.
I had a nice response to this but then I remembered this:
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Let's just say that one OC inherited a talented roster but a fractured team and made the offense one of college football's greatest ever and the other inherited a talented roster with a united team and tried to run the same system with no changes.
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AshlandDuck
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by AshlandDuck »

He ran the same offense and was prolific with it. I'm not sure that's a good argument. The defense was actually changed, ironically, and that was where he failed. Also, I don't think it's fair to call UO a fractured team under Bellotti because the team wasn't winning the conference. USC was dominating the entire country at that point in time and Oregon was consistently one of the challengers for 2nd best program during Bellotti's latter years. I mean, isn't it telling that many of Bellotti's coaches remained in the program all throughout the Chip and Helf years. There was something built here by Bellotti that both Chip and Helf benefited from ultimately.
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Merganzer »

AshlandDuck wrote: I mean, isn't it telling that many of Bellotti's coaches remained in the program all throughout the Chip and Helf years. There was something built here by Bellotti that both Chip and Helf benefited from ultimately.
I think it is telling that Belotti's coaches remained in the program so long. Chip came in, and with the coaching continuity, transformed football, not only at Oregon, but college football in general. Helfrich took the continuity, and rather than be innovative, was complacent. The result of that was the team zoned out. It's clear how the coaching staff under Helfrich bought in to the idea that Oregon could not compete at the highest level in recruiting. Helfrich deserves a lot of credit for his contributions at Oregon, and the best of luck in the future.
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Duck07
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by Duck07 »

AshlandDuck wrote:He ran the same offense and was prolific with it. I'm not sure that's a good argument. The defense was actually changed, ironically, and that was where he failed. Also, I don't think it's fair to call UO a fractured team under Bellotti because the team wasn't winning the conference. USC was dominating the entire country at that point in time and Oregon was consistently one of the challengers for 2nd best program during Bellotti's latter years. I mean, isn't it telling that many of Bellotti's coaches remained in the program all throughout the Chip and Helf years. There was something built here by Bellotti that both Chip and Helf benefited from ultimately.
The players were definitely fractured on that team that season and I know this personally. Chips offense helped in more ways than one.
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pezsez1
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Re: Willie, we dodged a bullet!

Post by pezsez1 »

Shouldn't we be focusing on how glad we are that Willie is gone? :lol:

I think it's time we get over Helfrich and moved on. He did some great things for the program -- he brought us Marcus and Herbert, and he did coach the team to a national title after a tumultuous first year -- but clearly, he wasn't the right guy for the long run. He lost the locker room after Marcus left. He couldn't make the right hire for DC, even if the AD seemed to be limiting his budget compared to what it's willing to pay out now. He was too Mike Riley-ish for the average Duck fan. Etc., etc.

No need to keep kicking dirt on the dude, especially when Slick Willie (who had maybe 1/4 of Helf's coaching IQ) royally dicked us in ways Helf never did.
Willie Taggart is a dick.
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