OT: 2017 Ducks and Beavers Football Thread

[JasonStern]

pros:
* Ducks got the guy their players wanted. Crosby had a "hire Cristobal" petition going around with 70+ signatures of teammates.
* continuity. better chance to retain as many coordinators as possible.
* continuity. better chance to salvage this recruiting class.
* reputation as a great recruiter.
* cheap hire. going after a top tier coach would likely have required offering a top tier contract.
* Saban disciple

cons:
* zero power 5 head coaching experience.
* mediocre track record at FIU - started strong rebuilding a program under sanctions, but the wheels fell off during his last season
* lack of west coast and Texas recruiting ties
* potential flight risk if the hiring does pay off due to no ties to the pacific northwest

initial thoughts are a B- coaching hire that I'm fine with. but ultimately it's going to come down to what assistant coaches he can retain and who he gets to replace the coaches that leave with Taggart. the great news on that front is he hired both Scott Satterfield and Todd Orlando at FIU as his OC/DC, so what little track record he has is incredible.

[Soulyss]

I love this... For the Beavs

[PDXKnight]

I love this... For the Beavs

Jonathan Smith is about as unproven as a HC and ya'll just brought back Riley. Not feeling like OSU is gonna challenge Oregon any time soon..

[Wizenheimer]

the interim label has been dropped and Mario Cristobal has been promoted to Head Coach for the UofO Ducks footbal team

It'll be interesting. His record at FIU wasn't great but FIU is a hard place to coach and he's worked under Nick Saban since. Seems like he was hired mainly because he is a great recruiter. Priority number 1 has got to be to get a great staff around him. Preferrably keeping as many assistants as possible would be great but It'd be awesome if he could snag at least 1 guy from the bama staff

I'm assuming someone like Cristobal only gets something along the lines of 10-16 mil/ 4 years due to his lack of successful HC experience. I'd be really disappointed if I find out we offered him something silly

my guess would be somewhere in the 3.5-3.8M a year ranges


Oden, read this article on Cristobal by a well-respected writer:

https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/12/08/mario-cristobal-oregon-ducks-interim-tag-removed

[PDXKnight]

the interim label has been dropped and Mario Cristobal has been promoted to Head Coach for the UofO Ducks footbal team

It'll be interesting. His record at FIU wasn't great but FIU is a hard place to coach and he's worked under Nick Saban since. Seems like he was hired mainly because he is a great recruiter. Priority number 1 has got to be to get a great staff around him. Preferrably keeping as many assistants as possible would be great but It'd be awesome if he could snag at least 1 guy from the bama staff

I'm assuming someone like Cristobal only gets something along the lines of 10-16 mil/ 4 years due to his lack of successful HC experience. I'd be really disappointed if I find out we offered him something silly

my guess would be somewhere in the 3.5-3.8M a year ranges


Oden, read this article on Cristobal by a well-respected writer:

https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/12/08/mario-cristobal-oregon-ducks-interim-tag-removed

Makes me feel quite a bit better about the hire!

[Wizenheimer]

It'll be interesting. His record at FIU wasn't great but FIU is a hard place to coach and he's worked under Nick Saban since. Seems like he was hired mainly because he is a great recruiter. Priority number 1 has got to be to get a great staff around him. Preferrably keeping as many assistants as possible would be great but It'd be awesome if he could snag at least 1 guy from the bama staff

I'm assuming someone like Cristobal only gets something along the lines of 10-16 mil/ 4 years due to his lack of successful HC experience. I'd be really disappointed if I find out we offered him something silly

my guess would be somewhere in the 3.5-3.8M a year ranges


Oden, read this article on Cristobal by a well-respected writer:

https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/12/08/mario-cristobal-oregon-ducks-interim-tag-removed

Makes me feel quite a bit better about the hire!

here's a follow-up interview with Feldman about Mario...pretty interesting

https://soundcloud.com/1jsnewby/bruce-feldman-interview-12-8-17

[Wizenheimer]

now here's the kind of endorsement you don't see every day:

Read on Twitter

[PDXKnight]

Contract details have emerged. Sounds like it's 5 years 2.5 million with a 10 million dollar buyout figure if he leaves early. Buyout decreases 2 mil a season. There's about 1.5 mil a season in performance based incentives.

Great contract imo. If he does well we can easily re-up it or if he sucks we can easily go a different direction with a relatively manageable buyout!

[PDXKnight]

my guess would be somewhere in the 3.5-3.8M a year ranges


Oden, read this article on Cristobal by a well-respected writer:

https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/12/08/mario-cristobal-oregon-ducks-interim-tag-removed

Makes me feel quite a bit better about the hire!

here's a follow-up interview with Feldman about Mario...pretty interesting

https://soundcloud.com/1jsnewby/bruce-feldman-interview-12-8-17

Yeah good interview indeed

[AllMyNeilOlshey]

Wiz, You got any information on what the coaching staff might look like? Who is he looking at for D-Coordinator?

[Wizenheimer]

Wiz, You got any information on what the coaching staff might look like? Who is he looking at for D-Coordinator?

the two guys I talk to a lot had better 'connections' with the old staff (before Taggart). Not so much now. They are donors but the inside channels have been throttled way down

there are only rumors and they are over the place. A lot of connected Duck donaors and bloggers have been assuming Leavitt will leave and go to FSU. That he was disappointed not to get the head coach job. That's been the prevailing wind all week. There is a rumor now that Taggart has moved on from Leavitt and has been talking to somebody else for the FSU DC job. Don't know if that has any legs

Ducks would obviously like to keep Leavitt and the rumor is they've offered him a nice raise, and all of Mullens, the two PK's and Critobal have lobbied him hard. A couple of people think that Jalen Jelks wouldn't have decided to come back for his senior season if he knew Leavitt was gone; maybe, but I'd think that has more to do with Salave'a then anybody else and everything I've heard is that Salave'a will likely be back. Obviously, nothing is certain though

if the Ducks do need a new DC...nothing I've heard indicates which way they are looking. Might stay in-house with either Keith Heyward or Salave'a (Heyward is mentioned a lot by commits and recruits)

Cristobal coached with Todd Orlando, the DC at Texas, but it's pretty hard to believe he'd leave Texas for Oregon

Cristobal also has worked and is friends with Greg Schiano, the Ohio State DC. Again, it's hard to believe he'd leave OSU for Oregon. But more then that, he has the stink of the Penn State scandal attached. Fair or not, I'd be worried about him a lot. He was slated to be the Tennessee coach and the state of Tennessee went ballistic about the idea

the name of Alex Grinch comes up a lot...he's the WSU DC and has a relationship with Salave's. But Cristobal doesn't know him

rumor is a darkhorse candidate might be Tim DeRuyter, Cal's DC. He has a resume similar to Leavitt in the sense he's gone to teams with horrible defense and turned them completely around. And, like Leavitt, he runs and aggressive 3-4 defense that attacks the line of scrimmage. That would certainly fit with what the Duck D did this year

but again, this is probably just a little bit of rumor and a lot of speculation coming from a lot of people

[JasonStern]

FSU hired a RB coach, so if FSU hires a WR and QB coach, then it's likely he remains on the staff. I still see him and Coach Woodie leaving due to longstanding ties to Taggart.

On retaining defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt:

"He does want to be a head coach. He's passionate. Boy, has he had a tremendous impact on our defense and our team. We'd love to have Jim stay... we'll do everything we can. We've showed our commitment last year when we paid $1.15 million. It's funny, I spoke at a luncheon today and the first question I got was, 'Pay him whatever he needs to keep him,' and I said, 'That's interesting, I came here a year ago you said how can you pay $1.15 million for a defensive coordinator and know you're telling me to do whatever I have to do. We want to make sure we do everything we can to convince Jim to stay but in the end, it's obviously his choice."

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2017/12/canzano_was_oregon_ducks_ad_ro.html

[PDXKnight]

Worst offensive game I've seen in awhile. Not gonna judge cristobal based on one game but if this is how his offense looks he will not last long so hopefully spring training brings out something better in this team

[JasonStern]

Typical drunk Jason warning.

Worst offensive game I've seen in awhile. Not gonna judge cristobal based on one game but if this is how his offense looks he will not last long so hopefully spring training brings out something better in this team

You had a team of players that quit on their coach a year ago. You have a new coach come in and try to build a positive culture. Then he quits on them. If this happened to not your team, would you be surprised if they regressed? Respect for some leadership stepping in after being down 24 straight points to at least make it look respectable.

Or maybe I am reading into it too much and a bunch of college kids playing a Saturday football game at 12:30PM in Las Vegas hadn't had adequate time to work off the hangover. I can relate.

This is going to sound bad, but since you aren't posting under your actual name, did you attend the game Wizenheimer? If so, did you sit next to a quiet guy who seemed unphased due to decades of sports disappointment during Blue Mountain State's 24 point run? If so, did you leave for a strip club at some point because your wife knew you were at the game and hiw often do you get these opportunities? If so, hi and thanks for being a fill-in Dad. (Unsupported emoji)

One game isn't enough to judge Cristobal. But he just got beat by a guy who was a rumored finalist for the job two years in a row from an Idaho community college. The big selling point to fans on Cristobal was to keep continuity, and yet we have had recruits decommit, Arroyo looked as bad or worse at play calling as Taggart, and Leavitt (plus other staff members with one less season on their contracts) may be on their way out. Not reassuring, but at least Oregon has a cheap .500 team so Mullens can say at least he's not Olshey.

On the positive side, something about Chip Kelly losing to BMS in his first game then winning later. And something about if Oregon is this bad against G5 competition, how historically bad is THE Oregon State University? And if Taj Griffin believed in himself as much as Cristobal believes in Taj, he'd be an all-American. And no Florida team is likely to poach Cristobal anytime soon!

Off to pour another drink then suffer on the drive home tomorrow... (3 Unsupported emojis)

[Wizenheimer]

Typical drunk Jason warning.

Worst offensive game I've seen in awhile. Not gonna judge cristobal based on one game but if this is how his offense looks he will not last long so hopefully spring training brings out something better in this team

You had a team of players that quit on their coach a year ago. You have a new coach come in and try to build a positive culture. Then he quits on them. If this happened to not your team, would you be surprised if they regressed? Respect for some leadership stepping in after being down 24 straight points to at least make it look respectable.

Or maybe I am reading into it too much and a bunch of college kids playing a Saturday football game at 12:30PM in Las Vegas hadn't had adequate time to work off the hangover. I can relate.

This is going to sound bad, but since you aren't posting under your actual name, did you attend the game Wizenheimer? If so, did you sit next to a quiet guy who seemed unphased due to decades of sports disappointment during Blue Mountain State's 24 point run? If so, did you leave for a strip club at some point because your wife knew you were at the game and hiw often do you get these opportunities? If so, hi and thanks for being a fill-in Dad. (Unsupported emoji)

One game isn't enough to judge Cristobal. But he just got beat by a guy who was a rumored finalist for the job two years in a row from an Idaho community college. The big selling point to fans on Cristobal was to keep continuity, and yet we have had recruits decommit, Arroyo looked as bad or worse at play calling as Taggart, and Leavitt (plus other staff members with one less season on their contracts) may be on their way out. Not reassuring, but at least Oregon has a cheap .500 team so Mullens can say at least he's not Olshey.

On the positive side, something about Chip Kelly losing to BMS in his first game then winning later. And something about if Oregon is this bad against G5 competition, how historically bad is THE Oregon State University? And if Taj Griffin believed in himself as much as Cristobal believes in Taj, he'd be an all-American. And no Florida team is likely to poach Cristobal anytime soon!

Off to pour another drink then suffer on the drive home tomorrow... (3 Unsupported emojis)

it was actually too early in the day for me to start drinking...(I have some standards, you know)...and the game got out of hand so quickly I didn't feel like drinking with a Blazer game coming on right after (wife was gone all day thank god)

anyway, how about that Duck OLine?...where did they find the lazy sleepwalking imposters for the real OLinemen we've see lately? That was by far the worst performance by a Duck O-line since the opening game in 2009...on the blue turf against BSU. More then 8 years ago. history repeats I guess

Oregon simply wasn't ready to play and the announcers were right...the Ducks looked exactly like a team that didn't really want to be there.

in the excuse department: I'm not sure this is correct but I've read it in a couple of different places...teams are allowed 15 practices for bowl games. Supposedly, BSU managed to get in all 15 practices, but the Ducks only managed to have 6 practices and one of those was no-contact. While BSU was having their first 8 or 9 practices, Oregon was going thru finals week (Taggart gave them the week off as a parting shot)....and during finals week they had the drama of Taggart's Hamlet-on-the-Willamtte dishonesty for 5 days, then him leaving, then several recruits de-committing, then the Ducks going into search mode for a new coach a year after doing the same thing, then hiring Cristobal

and spicing that up is the probability that shortly after the game, win or lose, Leavitt will leave along with 2 or 3 other assistant coaches

it's little wonder the Ducks came out with broken focus and intensity. Just way too many distractions in too short a time. That's not to excuse players getting beat all over the field as much as it happened today. And it sure didn't help that Herbert had by far his worst game as a college QB

Oregon got hosed. They had all the coaching turmoil, and then they got the terrible draw of the earliest bowl game a 7 days after finals week. Then they got their asses kicked

they need to remember this and make it into motivation. And the coaches need to figure out where they went wrong in this short week of preparation because for damn sure, nothing really went right

[Wizenheimer]

Oregon ups the ante to 1.7M/year and signs Jim Leavitt as DC thru 2021

http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2017/12/jim_leavitt_ducks_defensive_co.html#incart_2box

it will be interesting to see what his buyout is

[PDXKnight]

Oregon ups the ante to 1.7M/year and signs Jim Leavitt as DC thru 2021

http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2017/12/jim_leavitt_ducks_defensive_co.html#incart_2box

it will be interesting to see what his buyout is

I'd imagine its a pretty decent one but with the same opt out (no buyout reqd if KS comes calling). We're paying him like a HC so we probably had some leeway with the buyout numbers. I wouldn't be shocked if its something similar to Cristobal's IE 75 percent of the value of the contract if he goes somewhere else and 50 percent of the value paid if Oregon terminates.

[JasonStern]

it was actually too early in the day for me to start drinking...(I have some standards, you know)...

me too! (okay, it was actually the $9 stadium beers.)

in the excuse department: I'm not sure this is correct but I've read it in a couple of different places...teams are allowed 15 practices for bowl games. Supposedly, BSU managed to get in all 15 practices, but the Ducks only managed to have 6 practices and one of those was no-contact.

that doesn't sound right. while Boise State might have completed more practices than Oregon, neither team was allowed the full amount of practices due to the bowl game being so early in the season. where Boise State got additional practices that Oregon did not comes from the fact that Boise State played in the Mountain West championship game. but then you could also argue that the Ducks should have been more rested as a result of not having to play a 13th game.

Oregon ups the ante to 1.7M/year and signs Jim Leavitt as DC thru 2021

http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2017/12/jim_leavitt_ducks_defensive_co.html#incart_2box

it will be interesting to see what his buyout is

Should Leavitt leave Oregon before Jan. 31, 2019, he would owe the university a $500,000 buyout. The amount would then drop to $250,000 after that date. However, those buyouts will be waived only if he leaves to become Kansas State's head coach -- a provision that was in his original deal with UO, as well.

source: http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2017/12/new_contract_details_released.html

[Wizenheimer]

that doesn't sound right. while Boise State might have completed more practices than Oregon, neither team was allowed the full amount of practices due to the bowl game being so early in the season. where Boise State got additional practices that Oregon did not comes from the fact that Boise State played in the Mountain West championship game. but then you could also argue that the Ducks should have been more rested as a result of not having to play a 13th game.

rest doesn't mean much in a situation like this...preparation does though

the 15 practice number was wrong..my bad

Oregon had 4 practices in Eugene and 1 in Vegas

BSU had 9 practices in Boise and 1 in Vegas...a 10-5 advantage and they weren't practicing after distractions like the Ducks had. Like I said, it's an excuse, but it's a pretty reasonable one

[Wizenheimer]

Read on Twitter

there are several sources confirming this. I've heard some of the things Taggart is saying about Oregon are pretty raw

three weeks ago he was telling recruits how great Oregon is....not he's telling recruits (some of the same ones too), how bad Oregon is.

What's a cross between a weasel, rat, and snake?