Quick – describe Mark Helfrich in five words.
Quiet? Smart? Company man? Oregonian?
Do you know or are you guessing?
Here’s what we have for sure: Helfrich is from Medford. He was a college quarterback at Southern Oregon, where he was a popular and influential leader in a school community that was struggling to settle the fate of its football program
Helfrich got his start in coaching at Oregon, where he was a graduate assistant, but he’s also spent a hell of a lot more time on the coaching staffs of Dirk Koetter and Dan Hawkins than Chip Kelly.
Helfrich turned 40 this year. There’s plenty of reasons to like the guy, and plenty of reasons to give the guy the benefit of the doubt – after all, pretty much everyone in the Helfrich family played football for or went to Oregon at some point in their lives.
Can the five words be, “Family man with dream job?” It’s hard to say. Not only do we not really know Helfrich’s football moxie, we don’t really know his personal makeup either.
It’s been easier in the past. Rich Brooks was dedicated, committed, and smart. Mike Bellotti was so laidback; he’d show up to booster function in his sandals. Chip Kelly was the restless innovator, the brilliant, prickly New Englander talking out of the side of his mouth almost as fast as he ran his offense.
Oregon has been on a clear path for a long time now. Brooks laid the foundation, Bellotti built the program into a perennial top 25 outfit, and Kelly made it a nationally-recognized phenomenon.
Helfrich’s job to some extent is to hold serve. Of course a national championship would be fantastic to round out an extraordinary period of Oregon football, but sustaining that level of excellence that Kelly achieved has to be the first priority.
It’s a difficult job to do.
Helfrich’s first season was a whole lot of blah that turned into blech real quick. To say that Oregon didn’t inspire would be an understatement.
There were chemistry problems – DeAnthony Thomas – injury problems – Marcus Mariota – and a general malaise.
And that was an eleven-win season.
So yes, it’s a very difficult job Helfrich has on his hands. The moon and stars are expected of the Ducks this year, despite the team losing a lot on the defensive side of the ball and having key spots to fill at wide receiver and running back – not to mention that the Pac-12 is better than it has been since who knows when.
The discussion surrounding the Ducks during preseason has been about Mariota, of course. The quarterback is possibly the Heisman frontrunner and certainly on the early shortlist.
We haven’t heard Helfrich’s name a lot. On that note, raise your hand if you’re confident that Helfrich is going to win the Ducks a close game this year.
Maybe the biggest void of all is at defensive coordinator, where there’s a Nick Allioti shaped hole on Helfrich’s coaching staff that will be filled by former linebackers coach Don Pellum.
Whether Pellum grows into that job, and Helfrich grows into his, will have a huge say in whether the Ducks are playing next January. Certainly, the head coach should be more comfortable in his digs.
Helfrich was guarded with the media in his first year in charge, offering cordial blasé reserve as his persona’s frontier. Hopefully, that drops away this year.
Around college football, there’s been audible scoffing over the handwringing coming from Eugene saying that it’s a make-or-break year for Helfrich after the 11-2 outing of 2013, but I understand it.
No one is saying Helfrich will be fired. No one is saying his job is under threat. And it isn’t. But the hope is this year we’ll see where we stand with this guy. Is Mark Helfrich someone to get behind or someone to worry about?
This isn’t about Helfrich stirring the pot or being outspoken at all – in fact, we can see the deep-rooted Oregonian in Helfrich’s low-key, polite, hard-working demeanor.
Helfrich doesn’t have to explain who he is. But if he’s doing his job, we should see his fingerprints on this team – for better or worse – in 2014.
When he took the job, Helfrich was all about continuing Chip Kelly’s philosophy and that trajectory set at Oregon. So we mostly got a Kelly team without Kelly.
That doesn’t work. There’s a feeling that this year’s Oregon team could run on autopilot – after all, they’ve got Mariota and Hroniss Grasu to lead the offense, and Ifo Ekpre-Olumu to lead the defense.
It’s a nice idea. But I’m thinking that if these Ducks could run themselves, that embarrassing surrender to Arizona last year never would have happened, and if they could lead themselves, they’d have rallied to blow the doors off Oregon State at Autzen, not squeak by them thanks to last minute heroics.
No, this is Helfrich’s team. It’s time he realizes that.
Talk to Helfrich for any extended length of time and you’re bound to head at some point about how lucky he feels to be where he is.
And I think that’s fantastic, an eminently admirable quality in a person. Now Helfrich has to own his surroundings.
Of course, it’s not just Helfrich, but Oregon’s coordinators and position coaches who have most of the one-on-one contact with players that need to develop a clear sense of direction and purpose about this 2014 season.
A success this year both for the team and its coach would be a validation of everything that is right with Oregon football: It’s nurturing, promote-from-within, patient, familial ethos that makes for a friendly and supportable program.
Helfrich is the kind of guy you want to pull for, and it doesn’t hurt that what he stands for is on the right path too.
A head coach is not a referee whose job it is to be seen and not heard. Mark Helfrich needs to make his mark in 2014.
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