The I-5 Thoughts: On the Big Ten Championship, the playoff bracket, Tez Johnson as DAT and more.
It only gets tougher from here for the No. 1 and undefeated Oregon Ducks.
We’ve finally gotten some sleep here at The I-5 Corridor headquarters and are ready to resume our run covering the (clears throat) NO. 1 SEED IN THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS.
I’m usually not an all-caps guy, but on my flight back from Indianapolis Sunday morning, I got a notification asking if I wanted to look back through my Google Photos to the Las Vegas Bowl seven years ago. That wasn’t an especially happy time in Oregon history. Willie Taggart had just bolted for Florida State, the Ducks pushed their chips in with their current offensive line coach, and the Mario Cristobal era at Oregon opened with a 38-28 loss to Boise State. The Ducks finished the year outside the top 25 for the second consecutive season and, despite that talented Herbert kid at quarterback, I remember thinking after that game that the school’s route back to national prominence felt distant, at best.
I knew Cristobal could recruit. But in that era of Oregon football, I really didn’t know what that meant. And while the Ducks were better a year later following Cristobal’s first full season, 11 punts on 15 total drives in a 7-6 Redbox Bowl win over Michigan State didn’t exactly inspire visions of catching the Alabamas, Georgias and Ohio States of the world.
“Nine wins,” a grinning Cristobal told me after that one. “That’s something.”
He wasn’t wrong — just two years earlier the Ducks won four games and completely cleaned house — and the next season the Ducks improved again to win the Rose Bowl. You could see the blueprint, but the prospect of Oregon actually competing for a national title still felt just a bit beyond the horizon. And when Cristobal left after the 2021 Pac-12 Championship loss, that dream felt dark once again.
The work he did in his four seasons at Oregon is integral in keeping the Ducks afloat after a challenging period. Simply, Dan Lanning, who had options, probably doesn’t take the Oregon job without Cristobal stocking the cupboard for those four years.
But watching the college football selection show yesterday knowing that the Ducks would be No. 1 before it even began had me thinking about linear versus exponential gains.
Cristobal had a tougher initial job at Oregon. His teams got a little better each year.
And the Ducks are 35-5 since he left and Lanning stepped in.
Yes, the beginnings of the NIL and transfer portal era (and Phil Knight) have played a large part in that. But I also think you’re crazy if you don’t think that the 38-year-old up on that Big Ten Championship stage with tears in his eyes and a hoarse voice as he talked about how proud he was of his progrum was the catalyst in navigating all of that.
“I don't think it's any secret what this team wants to accomplish,” Lanning said Saturday night. “But you don't get there just by looking at it. It takes work.”
The Ducks want to win a national championship. I believe they can do it. But if Lanning only knew Saturday night how much work the Ducks were facing…