Former Oregon coach Mario Cristobal getting raked over coals after loss

A few years ago, Mario Cristobal shocked the nation when he left Oregon football for Miami right before the Ducks' bowl game and it felt like the program was trending in the wrong direction.

Cristobal had a decent amount of success as Oregon's head coach and he decided to return to Miami to coach his alma mater. It was a tough pill for fans to swallow because he was the second coach in recent memory to leave for a "dream job" at the college football level in a lateral, at best, move. The first was Willie Taggart leaving for Florida State suddenly.

Everyone was sure that this would set the Ducks back a few years in their quest to get back to the top of college football, but it actually had the opposite effect.

Dan Lanning was hired and, well, the rest is history.

Lanning was a national contender through his first two seasons with the Ducks and now in season three, he has Oregon ranked No. 1 in the nation and it has some of the best odds to win it all.

So was the coaching change worth it? After watching Cristobal lose to Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon, ruining his perfect season and getting cooked by the media in the process, it feels like the answer is a resounding "yes".

Miami entered the game as a comfortable favorite and Cristobal's Hurricanes just needed to take care of business and they'd likely coast to a 12-0 regular season. But they lost and it was due to his poor clock management late in the game.

We saw some poor clock management on Saturday from coaches around the nation, but Cristobal was one of the worst offenders -- again. And no Oregon fan is surprised.

While no one wants to see Cristobal be out of a job, it does make fans feel better about what happened that offseason when he left Oregon high-and-dry suddenly. Fortunately, Lanning has been everything they could have hoped for -- and more.

Saturday was further proof that Oregon won that coaching carousel.