I don't know if Mike Bellotti counts as an "underrated" coach: Because the second half of his tenure at Oregon had the misfortune to coincide with the reawakening of the Trojan beast to the south, he walks away from the job with only one Pac-10 championship to his name and something of a reputation for fielding teams that faded badly down the stretch. Plus, those uniforms appeared and proliferated on his watch. So whatever reputation Bellotti has from his relatively obscure post, I don't know that it's inaccurate compared to most of his elite contemporaries.

Compared to his predecessors at Oregon, though, I don't think there's any question where he ranks:

Bellotti presided over four of the top five Oregon seasons in his lifetime and made the Ducks into a consistent winner, a first-division Pac-10 program for the first time in anyone's lifetime. He never took a team to the Rose Bowl, but the 2001 Ducks probably should have played for the mythical championship there ahead of Nebraska and the 2007 version was rolling towards a likely title shot before star Dennis Dixon suddenly bit it for no particular reason on a random Thursday night in November. He presided over what was at the time the longest home winning streak in the nation from 1997-2001. As Bellotti passes the torch to Chip Kelly, the Ducks have a better than even chance of signing the top-ranked recruit in the country -- a kid from Kansas, no less -- which would have been inconceivable ten years ago, no matter where he was from. Oregon was barely relevant on the West Coast when Bellotti took over for Rich Brooks; now it's national. He had that awesome mustache for a while, too. And he sometimes takes tips from bloggers.

But here's the other thing with Bellotti: He's the only contemporary head coach, including Carroll, who can be properly described as "laid back," and not only relevant to other coaches -- I'm pretty sure, if my memory can channel the nebulous days of the blogosphere, his reputation as a generally charismatic mensch earned Bellotti the prestigious title of "Coach You'd Most Like to Have a Beer With" (though for some people, I think, that was only to ask him about his crazy wife). He's not a walk-off-the-field-and-die kind of a guy.

More importantly for me was that Bellotti was the source of probably my favorite television moment since I've been writing about the sport. Everybody remembers the hilariously blown onside kick call that put the Ducks over the top against Oklahoma in 2006, but even then, almost nobody seemed to acknowledge the sarcastic urinal Bellotti hung in the gallery of instant replay later the same year. Oregon was down 28-7 in the fourth quarter when a desperate fourth down pass by Dennis Dixon was tipped and hauled in by Jonathan Stewart in the back of the end zone. Touchdown, Oregon. Pete Carroll challenged that Stewart had stepped out of bounds before the catch, and finally won after an unusually lengthy review. No score, USC ball. Bellotti, with nothing to lose, actually challenged the ruling of the original challenge -- and not only got the extra review, but won. After another marathon look, extending the total stoppage to a good half-hour, the score was reinstated. Oregon lost, 35-14.

I almost wouldn't believe I actually saw it, if Carroll's immortal reaction hadn't been recorded for posterity. That's worth at least a Rose Bowl berth in my book.