Mike Bellotti was good when he had a good OC like Tedford or Kelly. When he had neither from 2002-2006 he drowned.
Showing he was a bad coach.
Everybody likes to bash Bellotti, a lot of it because of the bonehead things that often came out of his mouth ("the best team didn't win", following a loss - shit like that). However, looking at the guy objectively he finished with a winning record against every other conference opponent, even USC. The last opponent has an asterisk because as I recall Oregon lucked out there by not playing the Trojans two years in a row when USC was really, really good. Be that as it may Bellotti was FAR from a "bad coach". He sure wasn't Chip Kelly but he won a lot of games when Oregon was still Oregon, in other words before the big Phil Knight money kicked in.
Mike Bellotti at Chico State went 21-25-2 in five seasons and unlike James was getting worse at his small school. He went 4-5-1, 4-4-1, 7-3, 3-6, and 3-7.
At Oregon here are his W-L I'll bold those where Tedford or Kelly wasn't his OC.
1995: 9-3, 6-2, 3rd place. Ranked 18th
1996: 6-5, 3-5, T-5th
1997: 7-5, 3-5, T-7th
Totals: 22-13, 12-12
Now Tedford comes in the program
1998: 8-4, 5-3, T-3rd
1999: 9-3, 6-2, T-2nd, ranked 18th
2000: 10-2, 7-1, T-1st, ranked 7th
2001: 11-1, 7-1, 1st, ranked 2nd
Totals: 38-10, 25-7
Now Tedford takes off to Cal.
2002: 7-6, 3-5, 8th place
2003: 8-5, 5-3, T-3rd
2004: 5-6, 4-4, T-5th
2005: 10-2, 7-1, 2nd. Ranked 12th
2006: 7-6, 4-5, T-5th
Totals: 37-25, 23-18
Chip Kelly now enters the program.
2007: 9-4, 5-4, T-4th. Ranked 23rd(Were ranked top 5 all year until Dixon got hurt)
2008: 10-3, 7-2, T-2nd. Ranked 10th
Totals: 19-7, 12-6
If these numbers don't spell out the picture that Bellotti is actually a bad coach who happened to benefit from two great OC's then I can't help you. The stats don't lie at all.