Oregon Football: Mario Cristobal ranked nation’s No. 16 head coach

Oregon football is in good hands right now.

Despite not making a playoff appearance since 2014, the Ducks feel like they’re on the right track with Mario Cristobal as the head coach and he’s certainly doing enough in recruiting to make sure they have the talent to stack up with the nation’s elite teams.

Cristobal is considered to be one of the best coaches in the Pac-12, but where would he rank nationally?

A couple of months ago, CBS Sports put out a list that ranked every Power Five head coach and Cristobal came in at just No. 16 overall. And that doesn’t include some of the Group of Five coaches who are considered to be elite like Luke Fickell, Billy Napier, and Ken Niumatalolo.

Recently, Sporting News released a ranking of every single FBS head coach and Cristobal got a little more respect. He was ranked the No. 16 coach in the country, Group of Five and Power Five combined.

And here’s what it had to say about him:

"With 25 wins and consecutive Pac-12 championships over his first three seasons as head coach, Cristobal is well on his way to breaking the top 10 among head coaches. He is recruiting at an elite level out west and should bring another Playoff appearance to the Ducks very soon."

Cristobal is the top-ranked Pac-12 coach on the list, three spots ahead of Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and the only other two coaches from the conference in the top 25 are David Shaw (24) and Clay Helton (25).

And yet people still doubt Cristobal.

Oregon football getting back to the top

For years, Oregon was considered one of the elite programs in college football. Mike Bellotti had a number of really good seasons with the Ducks but could never get them over the top and then Chip Kelly changed that by leading them to the national title game.

Mark Helfrich led the Ducks to the national title game but then regressed in the years that followed before Willie Taggart was hired. He generated plenty of excitement as it was considered a splash hire, but he left following the regular season to take his next “dream job” at Florida State. And that didn’t last long either.

Cristobal took over and has been there since. He’s finally getting the program back on track.

Oregon looks like a national title contender heading into the 2021 season and is fresh off back-to-back Pac-12 titles. The program is trending up for the first time in years and Cristobal has fans believing again.

His No. 16 ranking among all head coaches is fair and he has plenty of room to move up. I could see him in the top 15 after this season, especially if Oregon wins another title.