Darren Perkins, one of our own at FishDuck, wrote this past Friday about Herbert’s draft billing and its relationship to head coach Mario Cristobal’s coaching which got me thinking about the 2019 season again. Joe Burrow became the unanimous first choice of the NFL Draft this time a year ago, as Oregon star quarterback Justin Herbert followed closely behind at sixth overall …
Perhaps it is the long cold winters I spend up here in eastern Washington, but the grouch in me has returned. It’s been a while, but like a broken record, I’m placing Oregon’s offense inconsistencies once again on Mario Cristobal’s shoulders. Having not been kind to Cristobal in the way he had handled the Oregon offense with the uber-talented Justin …
Henry To’oto’o has been a star at Tennessee. Unfortunately for the Vol’s, the rest of the team hasn’t matched his ability over the last few years and they find themselves in search of a coach. For To’oto’o, that was enough to put his name in the transfer portal. It looks more and more likely that the linebacker might just end up …
Mario Cristobal is building something special at Oregon. He is taking a school that sits at the physical and metaphorical fringes of the College Football world and elevating it into a football power. Now, none of this would be possible without the prominent coaches who came before him: Rich Brooks, Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly, and Mark Helfrich. All these coaches …
Now that we have a surface-level understanding of what Coach Tim DeRuyter’s defense will look like from my last article, lets’ take a deeper look at his base alignment. From the writings of the man himself, Coach DeRuyter prefers the 3-4 defense, and for good reason. Some of his personal reasons for using the alignment are that it gets better, …
The Oregon Ducks have hired Coach Tim DeRuyter to fill their vacant defensive coordinator position. Coach DeRuyter has spent the last four seasons as DC for the California Golden Bears, where his defensive units have given the rest of the Pac-12 headaches. He took over what was the 127th nationally ranked scoring defense the year before he arrived in Berkeley, …
Come this June, the Pac-12 will purchase one final plane ticket for current Commissioner Larry Scott, and it will be a one-way ticket to anywhere but here. Thank goodness. While Scott did bring the Pac-12 up to date and into the 2000s (His predecessor Tom Hansen had fallen woefully behind the times) with marketing and branding, it became …
With change comes opportunity. As Andy Avalos leaves Oregon to take the head coaching job at Boise State, there is an opportunity for Mario Cristobal to evaluate the Oregon defense and elevate the defense to the next level. Coach Eric Boles was kind enough to give us his most recent list of top five defensive coordinator candidates, which shows us …
It has been just about one year since the Rose Bowl win. Justin Herbert, Troy Dye and their compatriots capped off their program-building careers with a conference championship and a win in the most important game to the Pac-12. It was a high point for the back half of a decade that saw Oregon reach new heights and fall right back to …
Now that it’s official, and Coach Andy Avalos is set to become the new head coach of Boise State, I first want to thank him for his two seasons as the Oregon Ducks’ defensive coordinator. Coach Avalos took the Oregon defense to heights that it had not seen in quite some time, all within a couple years. Congratulations, Coach Avalos. It …
Dear Mario Cristobal, I, like many Duck fans, have appreciated the recruiting revolution and the defensive reinvigoration brought during your tenure. The back-to-back Pac-12 Championships are a major step accomplishment for an Oregon program that bottomed out in 2016. It has been a fast rebuild back to the top of the Pac-12, and for that we are appreciative. There is …
Another year, another coordinator search. The idea of replacing coordinators every two or three years isn’t an enjoyable one for most Ducks fans, as they long for the days of decades-long staff continuity, but it’s the reality of having a great staff. Coach Mario Cristobal has done a tremendous job building Oregon’s staff. These coaches aren’t leaving the program for …
