For the first time in 40 years, the Oregon Ducks have fired their head football coach.

Mark Helfrich is out after four seasons and a search for his replacement begins, the school announced Tuesday night, shortly after Helfrich and athletic director Rob Mullens met.

"No one wanted Mark to be more successful at Oregon than me," Mullens told reporters Tuesday night. "For the past several months I've grown concerned over the direction of the program. We were not competitive in a number of games and we were on a poor trajectory."

Players were given less than a half-hour notice Tuesday night to attend an emergency team meeting at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, where they were informed of the decision. After the meeting, players walked to Helfrich's office and formed a line outside as they waited to say their thanks. Players described it as emotional, with Helfrich and players crying as they exchanged hugs.

"Players were upset, like they had lost a family member," Mullens said.

During the meeting, Mullens said he was leaving Wednesday and not returning to Eugene until he had the school's next coach, but couldn't offer a timetable with the college football season still ongoing.

The search will be assisted by the firm Parker Executive Search, and will go "far and wide," Mullens said.

The unprecedented highs achieved early in Helfrich's four-year tenure were not enough to protect the Oregon native from too many recent losses, by too many points, that undid the Ducks' era of success with shocking speed -- not unlike the tempo UO once used to run roughshod over the Pac-12.

Helfrich's final game was a 34-24 defeat at Oregon State on Saturday, a Civil War that UO led 24-14 midway through the third quarter before allowing 20 unanswered points to the Beavers, who had lost eight in a row in the rivalry.

UO finished the season 4-8, the first time it has finished a season with a losing record and without a bowl appearance since 2004. It was one of more than a dozen notable streaks to end for UO this season -- among them a 12-year winning streak against rival Washington, and a decade-long run atop the Pac-12 in rushing.

Most importantly, UO had won at least nine games in eight consecutive seasons until this fall.

In a prepared statement, Helfrich thanked his wife, his family, fans, donors and more.

"It is a great honor to have served as the head football coach at the University of Oregon," Helfrich said. "It is with respect and disappointment that we receive this decision. Plain and simple -- we didn't win enough games this season.

"... To our coaches, staff and their families, it is impossible to communicate my gratitude for the environment we got to work in every single day.

"Finally, to the players -- thank you, and I love you. The future is bright for this young, talented team, and we will be supporting them and their new leadership."

Helfrich's firing is a highly unusual departure for Oregon, which last fired its football coach in 1976. That decision led to the hiring of Rich Brooks and the development of a rare, insular culture at UO: The program's last three head coaches all were promoted from within.

But Helfrich's firing will usher in a new era, with Mullens confirming the Ducks will be going outside their current ranks to find their next coach.

UO representatives reportedly met with Tom Herman last week before he left Houston for Texas on Saturday. Another report from Texas said UO is "kicking the tires" on Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, the former Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and USC coach. A 247 Sports report also indicated that TCU's Gary Patterson was not receptive to UO overtures.

Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck (29-21 in four seasons) and Boise State's Bryan Harsin (38-13 in four seasons, including 2013 at Arkansas State) are reportedly targets of Oregon's. A source told The Oregonian/OregonLive's John Canzano on Saturday evening that Oregon lined up a search firm weeks ago in the event it fired Helfrich. Mullens confirmed Tuesday that Parker Executive Search, based in Atlanta, will assist in the search.

Another source indicated that Fleck has interest in Oregon if a contract with Purdue is not finalized. A report by USA Today this week included Florida coach Jim McElwain and Penn State's James Franklin as higher-profile potential candidates.

Mullens prefers head-coaching experience but is open to hiring coordinators, he said, which lends credence to a FootballScoop.com report that Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley already has been contacted by UO representatives, along with Fleck, to gauge his interest.

State law requires that schools interview at least one minority candidate for any head-coaching position, but there is no penalty if schools do not comply.

Helfrich said he called Mullens on Sunday morning, hours after the Civil War loss, and asked for a meeting about his future, but it was pushed back due to Mullens' travel schedule. Mullens is in his first season serving on the College Football Playoff selection committee, whose duties ended Tuesday afternoon.

Mullens took heavy criticism for delaying the decision and having coaches recruit amid the uncertainty in the interim, and one recruit snapped a photo in his family's kitchen with a smiling Helfrich and offensive coordinator Matt Lubick on Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the firing.

Mullens said he wanted to remove himself from the emotion of UO's loss in the Civil War and ultimately made his decision Tuesday.

"Mark is a quality person," Mullens said. "I understand that the past 72 hours have been difficult for Mark, for our coaches, for our student-athletes and fans but I have a responsibility to be thorough and make the best decision possible after taking into account all factors in reviewing the season."

Promoted in 2013 from offensive coordinator following Chip Kelly's departure for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, Helfrich was 37-16 in four seasons and oversaw a school-record 13 wins in 2014, when the Ducks played for the inaugural College Football Playoff national championship behind quarterback Marcus Mariota, the program's first Heisman Trophy winner.

Oregon has won 13 games ever since, dogged by questions about its ability to recruit quarterbacks and its inability to play defense. Out of 128 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Oregon ranked 115th in points allowed in 2015, prompting Helfrich to demote coordinator Don Pellum and hire former Michigan coach Brady Hoke, who never had been a coordinator in more than 30 years of college coaching. Statistically, UO regressed in 2016, ranking 126th out of 128 FBS teams in scoring defense.

Oregon won 11 games Helfrich's first season, 13 his second, nine his third and four his fourth. The Ducks lost eight games through Helfrich's first three seasons, and matched that total in his fourth season.

Due to terms of his buyout, Helfrich is owed $11.6 million for the remaining three years of his contract, which will be paid out through its end, in January 2020. Mullens signed Helfrich to the deal, a five-year extension, in February 2015, weeks after Oregon's loss to Ohio State in the playoff national championship game. It is the 29th-highest buyout in Division I, according to USA Today.

Upon his promotion Helfrich, 43, became the first native Oregonian to coach the Ducks in 71 years.

Though he attended Southern Oregon University, Helfrich has had a long connection to UO as a fan, growing up in Coos Bay and tailgating in the Autzen Stadium parking lots. He turned down an opportunity to walk on to the UO football team but after graduating and coaching at SOU, got his first break into coaching as a graduate assistant under UO coach Mike Bellotti in 1997. He returned 12 years later as Chip Kelly's offensive coordinator.

When Helfrich was hired, he placed a painting of Steve Prefontaine, the iconic UO runner who also came from Coos Bay, outside his office door.

Helfrich's ouster puts the future of his staff in jeopardy. The new coach will have full authority on whether to retain any of UO's long-tenured staff, which includes five assistants who have coached at least the last 10 consecutive years in Eugene. The staff is owed a combined $3.7 million in buyouts if none are retained.

The longest-tenured of the group, running backs coach Gary Campbell, told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week that he is considering retirement. Campbell, hired by the Ducks in 1983, has not made a decision whether to step away but added that there is a "very good chance I would retire" if Helfrich was fired.

"It's not always fair," Campbell tweeted late Tuesday. "But it's real."

Because Helfrich's buyout will be mitigated by any salary he earns at a future job -- and he is contractually obligated to search for a comparable position -- Mullens said he did not know the final tab for the firing, but anticipated UO would attempt to pay for some of it with $6.5 million in UO licensing revenue. He added that UO would recoup other costs by not having to pay bowl bonuses to the coaching staff, a nod to UO's rare postseason absence.

As calls for Helfrich's job increased this fall, UO officials commented just twice on Helfrich's performance, the first during athletic director Rob Mullens' appearance on a university radio show Oct. 10. Mullens said he would be supportive of the coaches and wait to make a big-picture evaluation -- but stopped short of outright declaring Helfrich the coach going forward.

It was a harbinger of the decision to come.

The job, Mullens believes, will be "very attractive."

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif