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QuickTake:
As Miami and Indiana meet for the championship, Ducks fans are left balancing resentment, gratitude and the legacy of Mario Cristobal.
There’s no need to take a poll.
After covering the Oregon Ducks for 12 seasons, I have a good enough feel for this fanbase to know who the majority of you will be pulling for tonight in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
On one side, you have Indiana — the undefeated team that knocked off the Ducks once in the regular season, then ended their year earlier this month in the Peach Bowl.
And while there’s a certain logic in wanting the only team that beat you to finish as the best team in the country, well, there’s also the opponent.
It’s Miami.
It’s Mario.
It’s the worst-case scenario, right?
For as good as Oregon has been since Mario Cristobal left after the 2021 season — Dan Lanning has added memorabilia from wins in the Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl and Big Ten Championship to Oregon’s trophy case — part of the comfort that came after yet another abrupt coaching change was that, for the first three years after, the Ducks were lapping the Hurricanes.
In Lanning’s four seasons, Oregon is 48-8.
In Cristobal’s four at Miami — including this year’s 13-2 record — the Hurricanes are 35-14, with one losing season and no meaningful postseason breakthrough until this year.
Up until Miami knocked off Ole Miss in the semifinals and the Ducks were kneecapped by the Hoosiers, Oregon was unquestionably in a better place.
Sure, Lanning has taken some lumps in the first four seasons of his career — but at least he wasn’t the coach who blew a big game in 2023 by not kneeling to end things against Georgia Tech.
Remember that time Cristobal did the same thing at Oregon against Stanford in 2018? Ducks fans sure do — as they also remember the Ducks falling on their faces in Tempe with the playoffs on the line in 2019, and that time they beat Ohio State at the Horseshoe in 2021 only to lose to a dismal Stanford team three weeks later.
Still, I can’t shake that Rose Bowl.
No, not the Ohio State one that Lanning lost by 20. The Wisconsin one.
The one that featured Justin Herbert galloping down the right sideline toward pay dirt. The one where Oregonian Brady Breeze was named the game’s defensive MVP. The one that completed a reconstruction of an Oregon program that went 4-8 in 2016 and was left for dead by Willie Taggart in 2017.
Oregon went 9-4 in Cristobal’s first season. And in year two, it was his Ducks smoking cigars inside the locker room of college football’s most hallowed venue following a 28-27 win over No. 8 Wisconsin.
“We’ve been down and out,” Breeze said then. “We’ve had three head coaches in four years. Three defensive coordinators in four years. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world because it’s made us better men and better teammates.
“And we’ve got this guy as our head coach. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
What the players say
The players’ perspective intrigues me.
Because while I know people who work for the program are largely happier — and feel more appreciated — in the Lanning era than in the past, many of Cristobal’s players swore by the coach.
And not all of them understand the hate.
For example, from former Oregon running back Cyrus Habibi-Likio.
Among the responses:
Intrigued, I gave former Oregon defensive tackle Jordon Scott a call.
Scott started for three seasons on Cristobal’s defensive lines, was a two-time Pac-12 all-conference honorable mention selection and marvels at how far Lanning has taken Cristobal’s initial roster reconstruction.
“I think the difference between then and now is that we only had one Penei Sewell,” Scott said, referring to the Detroit Lions’ left tackle who came to Oregon as a 6-foot-6, 360-pound freshman. “I mean, nobody now plays as well as Penei, but in terms of stature, we only had one. Now, it’s like even the backups are all big, physical, rangy and tall.”
After a short stint with the Minnesota Vikings in 2021, Scott has moved back to his home state of Florida. He sells insurance in St. Petersburg and coached high school football for the first time this fall.
He enjoyed playing for Cristobal and credits the coach for getting the program out of “the wilderness.”
“In terms of building a roster and getting guys ready to play and culture, I always thought he was a great coach in that aspect,” Scott said. “Looking back now that I’m an adult, you have to go through those phases of messing up and learning those lessons. At the end of the day, you have to take your lumps and learn from them.”
Though he doesn’t think they will, Scott is pulling for the Hurricanes to win on Monday.
But also — he gets it, Oregon fans.
Scott grew up as one in Florida, a kid 3,000 miles away who was drawn by the flash of the uniforms and players like La’Michael James, De’Anthony Thomas and Marcus Mariota. He got to play for the Ducks — and now he gets to argue about them.
Specifically, Scott mentioned conversations with a high school friend he now coaches against. Scott, of course, is still an Oregon fan. His friend? A diehard Hurricane.
“Before the season, all we did was argue about whose team was going to be better,” Scott said. “And it turns out Mario leads them to the natty — and he’s been shoving it in my face ever since.”
