UCLA Football Preview: Mario Cristobal Has Ducks on Right Flight Path
In fewer than 3 whole seasons, Mario Cristobal has fixed Oregon, which makes you wonder about coaches who can't do the same thing.
After beating UC Berkeley at home on Sunday, the UCLA Bruins head to Eugene, Oregon this weekend for a game against the Oregon Ducks. The game time and TV info is still up in air and we should expect to find out at any moment.
In the meantime, let’s take a look at the Ducks’ coaching staff and special teams.
Head coach Mario Cristobal is now in his third season leading the Ducks. Unlike other coaches who seem to be having problems winning consistently, Cristobal has had no such problems in Eugene. Cristobal first came to the Ducks as their offensive coordinator in 2017 after Mark Helfrich was fired for going 4-8 in 2016. When head coach Willie Taggart opted to leave after just one season, Cristobal took over a program which was 7-6 in 2017 under Taggart and improved them to 9-4 in 2018. He followed that up with a 12-2 season last year when Cristobal led the Ducks to the Rose Bowl where Oregon defeated #8 Wisconsin, 28-27. This is the sort of trajectory a program should expect when hiring a new head coach.
Interestingly, after his first season, Cristobal fired defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt and replaced him with Andy Avalos. Avalos came to Eugene after spending four season on the staff at Boise State, the last two of which were in the role of defensive coordinator. He was able to improve the Duck defense quickly. Last year, Oregon was ninth in the nation in defense after finishing 49th under Leavitt.
Over on the offensive side of the ball, the Ducks have a new offensive coordinator. After the success of last season, Marcus Arroyo left Eugene to become the head coach at UNLV. To fill that vacancy, Cristobal turned to former Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead.
Moorhead made a name for himself as the offensive coordinator at Penn State during James Franklin’s first two years in Happy Valley. While Moorhead was at Penn State, the Nittany Lions went 21-5 overall and were 17-3 in the Big Ten. His tenure there included appearances in the Rose Bowl his first season and the Fiesta Bowl in his second. In fact, it wouldn’t be shocking, given Penn State’s abysmal performance this season to see Moorhead hired as the head coach of the Nittany Lions within the next few years.
There are three other interesting members of the Oregon staff. The Ducks running backs coach is former UCLA running backs coach Jim Mastro. Mastro was on the Bruin staff for the 2011 season and, after Rick Neuheisel was fired, he moved on to Washington State. One of the Ducks grad assistants is former UCLA cornerback Jalen Ortiz. Ortiz played two seasons in Westwood before transferring to Wyoming for his final two seasons. Finally, the final Oregon staff member with a UCLA connection is Nate Costa. While Costa played quarterback for the Ducks, he did spend the 2018 season on Chip Kelly’s staff.
Let’s look at Oregon’s special teams.
Special Teams
Sophomore Camden Lewis handles most of the Ducks’ placekicking duties. Lewis is a classic college kicker, meaning he’s not particularly reliable. Last season, Lewis made just nine of his fourteen field goal attempts, but he was successful on 57 of 59 PAT attempts. After 101 college kickoffs spanning last season and the first two games of this season, Lewis has 30 touchbacks and three kicks which went out of bounds. In other words, Lewis just doesn’t have a very strong leg. In fact, four of his five misses last season were between 20 and 29 yards. Only one was longer than 40 yards. So, while 40 yards seems to be his limit, he’s even less of a threat from shorter than 30 yards.
Tom Snee is back this season as the Ducks punter after sitting out 2019 as a redshirt year. Snee is an Australian who averaged 35.2 yards per punt in 2018 and half of his punts were fair caught. His career-long is 51 yards.
Junior running back Travis Dye will likely be the Ducks primary punt returner. So far this year, he’s the only Duck to return a punt. Meanwhile, Mykael Wright is handling most of Oregon’s kickoff return duties so far this year. While he hasn’t sprung one for a touchdown yet this year, Wright ran two kickoffs back for a score last season. So, he’s the guy UCLA needs to look out for. Jackson LaDuke is Oregon’s other return man. Given that his only kickoff return this year netted no return yards, he may be the better guy for the Bruins to kickoff to.
That wraps up our look at the Oregon coaching staff and special teams.
Go Bruins!!
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