It's no secret that Oregon has struggled to stay nationally relevant since Marcus Mariota and Chip Kelly left the school. They did go to the playoffs in 2015, but that was a lot of Mariota's doing and have not been the same since then. The school's biggest benefactor in Nike co-founder Phil Knight has said that he is willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money —- about $10 million a year —- for a new head coach.
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With another loss this season, this time a 55-27 drubbing at the hands of Stanford, the Ducks are reeling and needing a new coach. Helfrich might be 36-15 in his time at Oregon, but a lot of those players were Kelly's and now that mostly his recruited players are on campus, he has not performed quite like his predecessors.
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Since that 2014 season (that ended in a loss in the 2015 Championship Game), Helfrich has gone 9-4 and is 3-7 so far this season with losses to Nebraska, Washington, Washington State, USC, Stanford, Colorado and California. The talk has been heating up to get rid of Helfrich and it would cost the school $11.6 million.
A reliable source inside the Oregon athletic department John Canzano of Oregon Live an hour after the Stanford game that Helfrich would not be fired between now and Monday. Nothing imminent, in case you were wondering. The exact quote went: "At this point nothing is happening with Mark."
That's not exactly a glowing review or even an endorsement that he'll be staying. Regardless of when it's done, Helfrich is going to have get the ax or boosters and fans are going to be pretty peeved. With no chance at making a bowl game, that move might happen sooner rather than later to get back on track in recruiting.
[h/t Oregon Live]
