Oregon adds highly praised ‘Bama coach

The Oregon Ducks appear to be on the right track after a football season they hope they can soon forget.

New head coach Willie Taggart has filled all nine of his open coaching positions, most recently hiring special teams coordinator Raymond Woodie on Thursday. Just a few days before that, he hired Alabama’s offensive line coach Mario Cristobal as Oregon’s co-offensive coordinator, working along side David Reaves. Cristobal will head the Ducks’ run game, and Reaves, the passing game.

It came as a bit of a shock to some that Oregon could rope Cristobal in, considering he’s been one of the most sought-after coordinators for the past three years, due to the job he’s done with Alabama. He’s most known for his recruiting ability and is expected to bring a new style of thinking to the Ducks’ run game.

With Alabama last year, Cristobal helped bring in two of the Tide’s six five-star commitments. The question is, will that translate over to Oregon? It’s much easier to recruit the top linemen when you’ve got the backing of the top-ranked college football program and have notably the best head coach, Nick Saban, leading the team. He also had the ability to pick out of the South, where it seems most of the top college athletes emerge. Now he’s going to attempt to recruit out of the West, where a much different style of football is played.

But that may be what Cristobal is most excited about: the new challenges that await him. He says this will only help him become a more experienced and well-rounded coach. It’ll be interesting to see if his Alabama success will translate to Oregon, a team coming off a 4-8 season.

The Ducks have more to be excited about with the recent announcement that four-star quarterback Braxton Burmeister will join them next season. Burmeister originally planned to attend the University of Arizona but flipped to Oregon on Jan. 6. He’s the third four-star recruit who has committed to Oregon so far.

The Ducks other four-star recruits are defensive backs Thomas Graham, who’s 5 foot 11 inches and 175 pounds, and Jaylon Redd, who is 5 foot 9 inches and 180 pounds. Oregon is currently ranked 33rd in recruiting for 2017 by 247Sports.com.

Oregon also has the good news of returning running back Royce Freeman and offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby.  Both are key veteran starters for the team, as long as Crosby can stay healthy. He dealt with a tough foot injury for the first half of the season before he had surgery and missed the entire second half.

The Ducks will miss a few key players next season. Speedy receiver Devon Allen will focus instead on track and field. Sophomore wide reciever Jalen Brown plans to transfer somewhere else. And wide reciever Dwayne Stanford and offensive lineman Cameron Hunt were seniors, now moving on.

It’s hard to lose some key players, but that comes with the turf in football.

Now its time to see how Taggart choses to rebuild this squad.