Going on his 14th season as Oregon Ducks head coach, Mike Bellotti has built a nationally-respected football program. The Ducks are 112-55 under him, with 11 bowl appearances and a 12th on the way. He’s sent a slew of players to the NFL Draft, has been this close to playing for two national championships (the robbery in 2001 and Dennis Dixon’s knee injury last year), and has three 10-win seasons - the only three in school history.

But that’s just not good enough for OREGONIAN columnist John Canzano, who wrote in today’s paper that Bellotti’s time at the school has come and gone, and it’s time for a change. Keep in mind that Canzano is not exactly an unbiased observer: he was the writer who was harassed in the press box last season by Bellotti’s allegedly drunk wife about a column he wrote involving their son’s two DUIs.

Biased or not, Canzano makes an interesting case for the Ducks to sever their ties with the winningest coach in school history and the dean of PAC-10 coaches (which says more about the lack of longevity of coaches in the PAC-10 than anything else). His argument basically comes down to this: Bellotti has done a great job of building a solid football program in Eugene but he’s also been a chronic underachiever with the same team, and perhaps it’s time for a new coach to come in and build on what Bellotti started.

Canzano has some fairly compelling stats to make his case: the Ducks have finished fourth place or lower in the PAC-10 standings four out of the last six seasons, and they have won just five of those 11 bowl games they’ve played under Bellotti.  And Oregon fans have become accustomed to their teams falling apart late in the year, having gone 10-17 in games played in November on since 2002.

The main impetus for making a change now, Canzano argues, is that there is a natural replacement who might not be avaiable in a couple of years: Boise State head coach Chris Petersen, a former assistant under Bellotti.  Wait too long, Canzano says, and Petersen will already have been lured away to a big-time program.

I understand the frustration with the Ducks: getting that close year after year only to see your team fall apart has to be maddening. And it’s not like Bellotti’s built the program with nothing more than dirt and sweat - there’s something to be said for having a huge corporate benefactor like Nike in your town when in comes to building the facilities and infrastructure to be a player on a major level.

But saying that a program is stale because a coach has been there a whole 14 years seems like a product of our fast food, microwave-ready, NOW NOW NOW culture. Again, if Dennis Dixon’s upper and lower leg cut the same way that one play against Arizona last year, there’s a good chance Bellotti is coming off a BCS Title Game appearance. And there’s no promise that Petersen would be the savior - some small schools coaches can make the transition to a big-time program, and others can’t.

What do you think you the job Bellotti is currently doing at Oregon? Would you cut ties with him to bring in Chris Petersen? And can we blame this all on his decision to shave off his silky, manly mustache?