Falling for the Big Ten: Hello, Michigan State
This week we say hello to a Spartans program that's brought out the good, bad and ugly during its history with the Ducks.
Welcome to Falling for the Big Ten, The I-5 Corridor’s series introducing Oregon’s new rivals in the Big Ten Conference. Today we continue with a collection of stories about the Michigan State Spartans.
Mario Cristobal spent the moments after his biggest win as a head football coach frightened.
His Oregon Ducks had outlasted Michigan State 7-6 in the 2018 Redbox Bowl, a win that one could really only sell if implementing a program-wide focus on physicality and grinding your opponent down like Cristobal intended to do.
It wasn’t pretty, as it often wasn’t during his tenure with the Ducks. But he got the job done. But before he could celebrate the first trophy of an Oregon career that would eventually include hardware from multiple Pac-12 Championship games and a Rose Bowl, Cristobal thought he had lost a piece of his own.
In the jubilation of an Oregon win that never saw the Ducks step foot in the red zone and punt 11 times, Cristobal thought he lost his wedding ring when he was doused with a jug of Gatorade. For several minutes, Cristobal, his assistant coaches, boosters and staff including then-University president Michael Schill, walked up and down the Levi’s Stadium Turf searching for that ring.
They never found it. The ring was tucked away safely back in the Oregon locker room the whole time.
“I now have 14 staffers extremely upset with me,” Cristobal said later in the press conference.
“You’d have an upset wife there, boss,” Oregon linebacker Troy Dye said.
“She’s already,” Cristobal replied. “She’s all over it. Trust me.”
