Oregon Football Finishes Regular Season 8-4 in Cristobal’s First Year

After a preseason full of whimsical optimism and yet-to-be-answered questions about a first-year coach, Oregon Football fought its way to a successful 8-4 regular season campaign.

The Oregon Football faithful, after all the trials and tribulations attached to following a college football program, shall sit back in their couches and watch the elites of the sport battling it out for the four spots in the College Football Playoff, pondering an ultimate “what could have been,” while a smile slightly purses their lips as they realize that the program just had yet another 8+ win season.

In my opinion, the season was a success. A year after a so-so 7-6 finish by Willie Taggart, the Ducks were set-up for the season they had: improve upon the win total, but know that we’re probably a couple steps away from the top tier of the sport. At the end of the day, that’s what transpired.

8-4. Definite Bowl Game territory. An elite Bowl? No. But perhaps a pretty good one? For sure. 6 wins. It’s the name of the game. The marking of a mediocre football team. Oregon had to get there: for the sake of the fans’ happiness and for the development of the youngsters (the extra weeks of practice are vital).

8-4. Won two-thirds of the games. But…8-4…we all know it could have been one of those 9-3,10-2, or hell, 11-1 type seasons had all the balls bounced right.

Against Stanford…well…I don’t even want to talk about it. That game felt like the scene in The Departed when Leo gets shot. Right after he caught Damon and looked to be in the clear, then BANG: bullet in the head. Oregon had that game wrapped up. Primetime. We were undefeated. The Playoff talk would’ve absorbed reality for the first time in years. Oh well, I guess…

Against Arizona…what happened? That was a performance that shocked me more than the aforementioned Leo shooting. We sucked it up and threw away a chance at finishing the year in the CFP Top 25. This was the one that hurt the team morale more than anything else. After this one…they just didn’t look the same the rest of the way from an attitude standpoint.

Those were really the badly missed opportunities. The games against Utah and Washington State didn’t bother me because those were two solid teams that are honestly better than Oregon.

But there is a lot of positive to take away from the regular season:

Justin Herbert: Perhaps the best pure passer to ever dawn the yellow and green. He’s spectacular as I’m sure you’ve gathered from my expert quarterback rankings. It’s a shame he left the game with an injury. I’m sure he’ll be fine by draft time, but still, not the farewell he deserved.

Washington game: Best performance of the year. A game that great teams win. We won. Now, finally, we don’t have to watch Jake Browning filet our defense with 11 yard passes anymore. That was a classic Autzen atmosphere where Oregon punked a fellow ranked team. Loved it.

Future: There’s still a farm of talented underclassmen that will have their names called in the coming years. Also, the Ducks’ recruiting is BACK and in a big way. #4 class in the country right now.

Overall…I’d say the season was a successful one that Coach Cristobal can build off for the next few years.