Mike Bellotti of Oregon and Gene Chizik of Texas are among the pool of coaches Colorado is examining, sources inside and outside CU’s administration said.
Bellotti, head coach at Oregon since 1995, is the dean of Pac-10 coaches. Chizik is in his first year as a Texas assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator after a radiant run as Auburn’s defensive coordinator.
Both are invigorating choices.
Bellotti, who turns 55 on Dec. 21, would take some wooing and wrangling. He is entrenched at Oregon and owns a multiyear contract.
Chizik, who turns 44 on Dec. 28, is a peppery choice.
If you are where CU currently resides (outhouse) and where Texas lives (penthouse) in the Big 12 Conference and beyond, why not catch a rising star who also brings the goods from this season’s eventual national champion? Jon Embree, the former Buffs player and coach, now a UCLA assistant head coach, remains on CU’s mind. So do several other coaches.
But Bellotti and Chizik are two of CU athletic director Mike Bohn’s favorite choices.
Maybe it is the coach at the top of Chuck Neinas’ list that matters most. Neinas is the athletic talent searcher CU used to hire Bohn. He lives in Boulder. His impact on the program and on this football hiring search is immense. CU interim president Hank Brown might listen to Neinas as much as Bohn.
We have already heard enough from Bohn.
I cannot recall hearing an athletic director, on the same day his coach is fired, saying that he has “a No. 1 all-star” in mind, one that “would be a home run” and a “great, great fit.” Some things are better left unsaid for such a moment. Bold, certainly, but for my taste, a little too grandiose.
Bohn has put himself in a position where he had better get an all-star, home run and great fit, to boot. Anything less and his credibility and competency shrink to zilch.
I imagine Gary Barnett is looking around after the fallout and wondering what in the heck happened.
His story is like surviving a plane crash and walking in the debris – only to get nailed by a truck. With all of the shenanigans that kept piling on during his CU tenure, with his bosses around him walking the plank, Barnett was safe until the Nebraska game. It was not the Texas game, that 70-3 knockout.
No, it was the Nebraska embarrassment on the field and in the stands that ruined it all for Barnett.
On the field, with a chance to clinch a Big 12 title game berth, the Buffs collapsed at home 30-3. Fans reacted with anger in the stands, littering the field. Brown, particularly, watched it all from on high and knew it was over for Barnett right then. Bohn quickly followed suit.
No doubt, Barnett must find it peculiar that he learned just as the world did on Wednesday he would be fired, as written in this newspaper. Friends say he was stunned to see those headlines. The next day, a letter that Brown admitted had been around for weeks became public, a damaging letter of allegations of Barnett tampering with witnesses and drug tests. None of it has been proved.
But the timing of the letter finding its way to the news media must burn Barnett. Did CU make sure the letter hit the news as a way to find cause to fire Barnett, as a way to induce a settlement rather than a suit?
It is a smelly situation all the way around.
CU would be wise to begin to invest the type of money into its football program that it wants in top-tier production on the field. Here is a school spending $3 million in a buyout but has yet to spend the same on an indoor practice facility.
The Buffs’ fan base is disillusioned and spotty. Recruiting is shaky. The commitment from the top is murky and the allure that CU presents on the outside is not what matches the core of its football program.
It will take an “all-star” and then some to fix that.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
