If Mark Helfrich and the Oregon Athletic Department had been placed in charge of the security of the free world, K.A.O.S. wouldn't have stolen a single secret. Nick Aliotti announced his retirement on December 27th, a retirement that had been in the works ever since he cut out a chunk of turf at the Fiesta Bowl a year earlier; the Ducks are two weeks into the formal search for his replacement, and there hasn't been a single leak from inside the Black Box about who was leaving or who is the next Oregon Defensive Coaching Idol.
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| Randy Shannon is a name that keeps coming up in the discussion. |
There will be no fan balloting in the search, and the decision of the judges is final. Neither Helfrich or Athletic Director Rob Mullens or any of their minions has let slip a single tidbit about what Randy Shannon had for lunch or who flew in from Salt Lake City.
All we know is what we read in the papers. The four most frequently mentioned candidates continue to be Randy Shannon, Clancy Pendergast, Todd Orlando and John Neal.
While the Ducks conduct their thorough and careful search to replace a 21-year contributor to the rise of Oregon football, Texas and Louisville have hired new head coaches, and Alabama and Michigan State new offensive coordinators. Shannon has been rumored for as many as three different jobs and turned down them all. 24 days remain in the recruiting cycle, and some key athletes, notably Trey Lealaimatafao, Arrion Springs and Mattrell McGraw, are being swayed and wooed by the moves and counter moves of the coaching candidate chase, which sometimes seems to look more like "Rollerball" or "Death Race 2000" than "Get Smart."
To read the rest of this story, please visit my 3-times weekly column at Duck Sports Authority. It includes a detailed analysis of the three outside candidates and their strengths and weaknesses.
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