Topic: Mike Bellotti

Robert Michael "Mike" Bellotti (born December 21, 1950) is a college football analyst for ESPN. A native of California, he was hired as football offensive coordinator by the University of Oregon in 1989. From 1995 to 2009, he was the head coach of the Oregon Ducks football team. In July 2009, after 13 years as head coach during which time he became the Ducks' winningest head coach, he resigned to become the school's athletic director; he resigned that post to become an ESPN analyst in March 2010.

Bellotti attended Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, California, where he played football, basketball and baseball and graduated in 1969. After high school he went to the University of California, Davis and played football at the positions of tight end and wide receiver. He started at tight end as a sophomore and junior, then earned second-team all-Far Western Conference honors at wide receiver as senior. Bellotti graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Physical Education in 1973. He completed the teaching credential program at UC Davis in 1974. In 1982, Bellotti earned his Master of Science degree in Physical Education at Cal State-Hayward.

In 1973, he started his career in football coaching at his alma mater as an assistant coach under College Football Hall of Fame coach Jim Sochor. The next season he worked as the JV teams offensive coordinator, and during the 1975 and 1976 seasons he was the JV teams head coach. Also at that time he served as the receivers coach for the varsity team and as a coach for UC Davis' JV baseball team.