Jan 2, 2012; Pasadena, CA, USA

Oregon’s search for their next head coach is apparently in full swing with reports surfacing that Stanford Offensive Coordinator Pep Hamilton has interviewed for the position. Hamilton is African American and fulfilled the state requirement that the Ducks needed to interview a minority candidate for the head coaching position.

According to Rob Moseley of the Register Guard, Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens was in San Francisco this morning to conduct the interview.

Mullens has quite the job in finding the successor to Chip Kelly whose record spoke for itself. The students would have fun with a coach named Pep. I’m sure the  media would as well.

Whoever Mullens decides to hire will come into a great situation with a sort-of-new stadium. It was announced earlier today that Phil Knight will pay $5 million dollars to  relandscape Autzen Stadium’s north side, a face lift of sorts to bring it more up to date, with better entrances and exits, as well as make ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The work will begin in February and be completed by the start of the upcoming season and should allow for easier entrance and exit to the stadium.

Oregon has not hired outside of the organization for quite some time. The last time ‘succession’ in house did not happen was 1977. I still see the best candidate for the job being Offensive Coordinator Mark Helfrich, now that the Ducks have fulfilled the Oregon state law and interviewed a minority candidate, it’s just a matter of time before there’s an announcement. Of course, we in the media have been wrong before – so stay tuned.

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