Three teams hit jackpot

For an NFL team, hiring a head coach straight from college is still considered risky business.

The list of college-to-NFL failures is longer than just about any that will be handed to Santa Claus over the next month, including the likes of Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Greg Schiano, and to go back a little further, Dennis Erickson with the Seahawks and 49ers.

Seattle is in the midst of a three-game stretch, though, that features living, breathing examples that it can work.

The Seahawks, of course, struck it rich luring Pete Carroll from USC.

So, it appears, have the Eagles with Chip Kelly, who is 19-9 since leaving Oregon for Philadelphia two years ago. That includes a 9-3 record this season, tied for best in the NFL, heading into today’s game against the Seahawks.

And while the 49ers’ relationship with Jim Harbaugh – whose team played the Seahawks last week and will again next week – appears headed for a messy divorce, three straight trips to the NFC title game and one Super Bowl appearance mean that no matter the end, it was worth the ride.

All of which led to the obvious question this week – was there something in the water in the Pac-10 Conference in 2009?

That was the one season in which all three were head coaches in the conference. Carroll, who lost to both that season, bolted for the Seahawks at the end of that season. Harbaugh, then at Stanford, left for the 49ers a year later, and Kelly after the 2012 season.

Asked about that this week, Carroll shrugged and said maybe it means that good coaches are good coaches whatever the level.

Indeed, when longtime NFL assistants such as Leslie Frazier or Jim Schwartz flame out, it’s just regarded as a coach failing and not necessarily indicative of some larger trend.

The histories of Carroll, Harbaugh and Kelly also show how tough it is to try to glean a one-size-fits-all reasoning for coaching success.

Carroll had been a longtime NFL assistant before becoming the head coach of the Jets for a season in 1994 and the Patriots for three more from 1997-99 before being fired each time. He resurrected his career at USC before returning to the NFL with the Seahawks. Carroll, though, has repeatedly insisted all that really changed is the situation and opportunity he had with the Seahawks to do things his way.

“I really had hoped that the freedom would be here and the freedom is here for me to do what I want to do and to get things done in the fashion that I think I can do it best,’’ Carroll said. “That has been totally supported.’’

Harbaugh likewise had a lengthy NFL résumé – 14 years as a quarterback, two as an assistant – making him more of a college coach returning to the NFL than one finally getting there.

Kelly, obviously, is the anomaly, having worked solely in the small-college ranks before becoming offensive coordinator at Oregon in 2007 at age 43, then head coach two years later.

Not only did Kelly have no NFL experience but he also brought with him an offense many regarded as a gimmick.

“I know a lot of people said ‘his system won’t translate,’ ” Mike Bellotti, who initially hired Kelly at Oregon, recalled this week. “I said: ‘That’s not the case. He’ll make it because he is a very good football coach who understands offense and defense and will put his players in the best position to have success.’ ”