Oregon 2020 Signing Day with Mario Cristobal

On the Oregon edition of the 2020 Inside Pac-12 Football Signing Day Special, Pac-12 Networks’ Mike Yam & Yogi Roth interview Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal on the highlights of the Ducks recruiting class.

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
They have one of the best classesin the entire country, the number one
class in the Pac twelve conferency.Organ Ducks the focus here on signing day.
There's a lot of reason to smileif you're a fan in Eugene.
Not only is the football team rockingcoming off a Rose Bowl win, the
men's basketball team has been balling,and we know Sabrina is the face of
college basketball. And obviously Kelly Gravesteam got a chance to win a national

(00:31):
championship. Mike am Yogi Roth withyou. Would you rather talk about Sabrina
or do you want to talk aboutMario's class? Massive respect Sabrina, stay
in your wheelhouse, but I'm gonnastay in the wayhouse today. After today,
I'll transfer. I'll see in Vegasbasketball tournament. It's roll. There's
a lot of reason for optimism,not only for both of those teams in
Vegas, but also this football team. Big picture, this for me because

(00:53):
I don't know if there's been atime around this program, and look,
Mario and his staff killed it ayear ago. It just feels different.
Even with another top class in theconference. They did something that's ever been
done before in the history of theirinstitution. Whether you like ratings or not,
I know fans do and coaches dowhen it's in their favor and maybe
challenger when it's not. But threefive star players, two of them at

(01:14):
linebacker. This is the best linebackingduo since I was coaching at USC.
This is so big time justin flow, Noah seul Mic. It's a championship
caliber program, not just in thePac twelve in terms of how they're developing.
So look out the way the schedulesset up, the way they compete,
the way they strain, the waythe fourth quarter program is what they
call it in the off season.There is built and maintain. I really

(01:36):
love where this program is going rightnow. It's them in the Pac twelve.
They're the face of this conference,all right. I think the difference
between last couple of seasons, wellprior to last year, is what this
team was able to do on thedefensive side. Andy Avelos was obviously a
great hire by Mario Christal ball thisunit though they don't really lose much and
granted I know they lose Troy Diebut not only the returning a bunch of

(01:57):
studs, but this class has gotreal dudes. Well think about last year
too, Mace Funo. He wasthe top linebacker I think they ever recruited
in the history of that program.They just decided to elevate and go beyond
that this year with the two ofthat I just reference, but overall they
also return as Mike reference too.Starting corners who opted to not go to
the NFL into your defensive lineman.Jordan Scott opted to not go to the

(02:17):
NFL. Javan Holland might be thebest nickel safety type player in this conference.
You could argue the nation. Sothey are loaded. And what I
love most is when you're good,people tell you how great you are.
But when you're good and people tellyou how great you are but your job
isn't guaranteed, that's when you canbecome an elite program. That's where they're
at. And that's something that youdealt with when you were at USC with

(02:38):
Pete Carroll. I want to talkto you about a comp with the linebacker
group in that USC squad coming upin a couple of minutes here. But
yes, the man who leads thissquad is Mario Christa Bond. He joins
us right now. Coach, congrats, I feel like we just did this
a couple weeks ago and I wascongratulating on the number one class in the
conference. So once again, congratulationson achieving that. But before we even
talk about some of these guys,you did some in this offseason that I

(03:00):
think it's like the greatest thing everbecause if you get another Fordham guy in
this conference like me and Joe Mooreheadand you did, you automatically just won
every battle. Because you know theguys from the Bronx, we usually take
care of business. But morehead ofyour new offensive coordinator, just kind of
take me through the process and whathe's going to bring to your team.

(03:20):
Well, again, a tremendous blessingto have Coach Moorehead join us. I
mean he is an elite play caller, elite coach, elite person. I
mean a guy's going to be agreat mentor for our student athletes. He's
already had a great impact being aroundthe guys and the type of energy and
Je said he brings to the tableis infectious. So again we are honored
to have him. He wants tojump in a springball right away as he
gets to know our players and getsto kind of go through our film and

(03:43):
see what we have available to workwith coming up. So again we are
we are super super fired up tohappen with us. Coach, I have
not stopped hearing about Fordham for acouple of weeks. He was at GA
when I was at Pitt, sohe will get a ton of love on
this set. But as has yourlinebacking, everybody gives it the duo,
but it's the trio when you lookat Jackson Leduke but justin flow consensus number

(04:06):
one defensive player, Noah Soul consensusnumber one player. I mean, you
can flip a coin that trio.How do you sell Oregon? How do
your current players there recruit these guys? And what are your expectation for these
three? You know, I thinkright now, honestly, it's selling itself
in this kind of manner. Ithink these players are seeing that a lot

(04:28):
of elite players are coming to Oregon, and they want to be around elite
players, They want to play witheach other. They have really just bought
into the fact that this is reallybecoming a program with the trajectory on its
way to being elite and accomplishing somegreat things. And they see it.
We're just getting started we're young,and these pieces that are joining us now
totally have a chance to not onlymake a huge impact right away, but

(04:49):
help us elevate the standard of howwe play football here. And you know
what else, guys, the guysare they have fun, they have fun
developing, they have fun playing football, are academic support services, and our
diploma here is a second to none. So their college experience as a student
athlete is off the charts, andit's paying dividends in the way our guys
are for our players themselves are sellingour program. Coach, last couple of

(05:13):
seasons, Yogi has made a hugedeal, and I know your program has
as well. But on this show, in particulous idea of the Calie flock
and you being able to dip into southern California and pluck some of the
best talent in the entire country tohead to Eugene, that hasn't always been
the case. So what is itabout, you know, kind of in
that secret sauce, you've been ableto get some of these guys to not
stay closer to home. It's kindof like a national flock now, because

(05:36):
I mean you look at our lockerroom. We come from all over the
place if you look at our staff. As a matter of fact, our
athletic staff was voted the most diversein the country. I mean we come
from all over and I think it'swhat the world should be, right.
You come from all those different parts, different backgrounds, ethnicities, languages and
come together to just form a greatfamily. And that's where we have going

(05:56):
right now. And you know,California for us is so important. Five
almost sixty players on our roster fromthe state of California. Awesome coaching.
Elite athletes are playing year round sevenon seven's old line D line camps.
I mean we can't get enough ofit. I wish there was more time
to recruit and be out there,but rules or rules, we can do
it. But certainly a huge partof our program. I love that and
believe every single word about that coach. One of those guys from Georgia,

(06:21):
Brayton Swinson, to me, maybedidn't have the hype of some other guys,
but when we watched him on tape, it was like, oh,
yeah, this might be a formidableanother edge guy for your defense. What
do you think about him? Well, he just turned seventeen years old,
all right, he has an eightyone inch winks man. He waited into
what two sixty two sixty five,and he is an incredible young man,

(06:44):
explosive as all get out, athleticand ben twist turn. This guy's a
nightmare to block. And watched himworking out in these workouts in our wait
room with Coach feld Man. Thisguy is just literally exploding body physically wise,
right before our eyes. We reallycan't wait to watch him go out
there and play the spring and thenanother one, another five star you rolled.
I mean last year we saw himMIKEL. Wright talent to dB Deonte

(07:06):
Manning. We couldn't talk to youabout him last time because he announced after
the early signing period. How didyou land this young man from the Midwest?
Well, Dante Williams has done anextraordinary job as one of the best
recruiters in the country for US hereat Oregon, and it was all It's
all about, hey man, thedefensive staff of course working with him,
and kind of funny. On theway up here to get miked up.

(07:28):
I ran into the track Coach hesays, Hey, I love Dante Maniago.
Yeah, we love him too,all right, So he'll be seeing
a lot of both of us.But a guy that runs the ten five,
ten six and it's just starting tolearn how to really run that particular
event. I mean, his bestfootball is ahead of him. He is
an awesome young man, great energy, great to be around. Can't wait
for him be on campus as well. Coach, you've been around championship programs

(07:50):
and I'm sure at times when teamshave won a championship, you can kind
of tell yourself how sweets you are. I highly doubt that is how it
works around there. So how doesit work around or after a Rose Bowl
championship with the current team. Yeah, we have a really unique way of
bringing guys back down for Cloud andnine. You know, that's just the
way we do things around here.We do things a certain way. We

(08:11):
walk and talk and train and practicea certain way, and it's all about
being hungry and humble and driven andeverything that we do. You know,
last year senior class they experience afour and eight season when they were a
freshmen. There's a lot of valueto that, and that story has been
very well document that those guys hada tremendous impact on our team. Our
current players, they haven't forgotten thatand they know how easy that that can

(08:31):
go the other way if you don'tjust fully invest in the things that you're
trying to do as a program toelevate the standards. So we're chasing a
standard. The standard is borderline unreachable, so that we're always chasing that's not
going to bend change or be compromisedfor nobody, nothing, at any point
in time. So we have alot of work to do and we're looking
forward to doing it. Coach,before we let you get go. In

(08:52):
last summer, I was with youat an event with a lot of alumni
and certainly a lot of questions aboutyour program. But you told a great
story about how you found out thatJustin Herbert had decided to come back,
and I think you were bracing yourselffor him to decide to go to the
NFL, and you said, youknow what, if he did, we
were going to be okay. Youwere excited about Tyler Shuck and what he
brought to the table. Yogi hadraved about him when we were doing the

(09:13):
signing day show. Are the keysto the car his At this point you
can never fully hand over keys becauseI think you lose a respect and the
integrity of the program. When youdo that, is he the guy in
the lead, without question, hehas the most experience he has put in
time. Are we excited about Tyler? Shuck? We're extremely excited about him.

(09:33):
We're extremely excited about the guys behindhim, and Cal Millan and Jay
Butterfield, you know, Brad Yaffee. Those guys are all good football players.
But in terms of Tyler, Tylerhas all the tools, the intangibles,
the work ethic to be a greatone. We've seen him play in
our spring game. We saw himjump in there a couple of times this
season. He's looking forward to gettingout there with these guys and playing some

(09:54):
football and doing the things that hecame here to do. So yeah,
we're super fired up about him too. I'll step one for your team is
crushing and recruiting. He did exactlythat, whin a Pac twelve championship.
You're the reigning champs and maybe we'retalking next season about a national championship.
Coach, congrats again on what youdid this offseason. Continued success and we'll
see in a couple of weeks.Okay, thanks guys, appreciate you go

(10:15):
Ducks and Yogi. The news justcontinues to get better for coach Crystal Ball's
team, and they got another studjust moments ago who decided to join the
team in Eugene. Well, thisis the one they've been waiting on pretty
much all day long. Mike,and I think we have to put this
into context. Right, Let's justlook him as an athlete, defensive tackle
six six plus three forty plus.But let's just set it for a minute.

(10:41):
They went to the state of Alabamaand they got a defensive lineman in
the state of Alabama who was committedto the University of Alabama. Like,
I don't want to put Alabama inthis crazy pedestal. Everybody does that,
but it's true. They've been theteam for the better part of the last
decade in college football. They've beenthe defensive front for the better part of
the last decade in college football.And for Oregon to do this, to

(11:01):
flip them this late. When heflipped back, everybody thought he was like,
Okay, probably gonna go to Oregon. Then earlier today it was it's
probably going Abama, and then theyget him last minute. It speaks volumes
to how they recruit, how effectivethey do in recruiting, and then to
where this program is going in thisconference, in the national conversation on the
defensive front, Jason Jones just anabsolute machine that's going to help out this

(11:26):
defense. Want to circle back tosomething you were talking about before, you
mentioned the secondary and just how muchfirepowers back that's returning to this roster.
You made a comp though you wereat USU and Pkara was there, you
feel like the linebackers right now atOregon fairly similar to the crop that you
guys had when see was rolling.Well, you can look at at the

(11:46):
ranking wise in terms of recruiting,It's never happened like that. So I'm
talking about Raymond and Lunga, BrianCushing, Caluca, my av My have
a Lutheran Brown. When that crewsigned at SC, we knew it was
a different crew. When these twoor now even three linebackers signed in December
to go to Oregon, you isdifferent, justin flow difference maker Noah Seul
to me is the best player inthis conference to sign. It just doesn't

(12:07):
happen that often. And they alreadygot mas Vuna a year ago, Mike.
This position group has a lot oftalent, a lot of competition,
and that depth is going to breed, so the best rise to the top.
This defensive front continues to get better. Anything we should be concerned about
at the quarterback spot, you losea guy that's going to be playing on
Sunday's first round pick. I'm not. I mean, I think everybody forgets

(12:28):
who they signed the last couple ofyears Kale mill and last year. You
look at what they signed two andthis year's class and Teller's shock to me
is a dude to bona fide AllConference caliber player. I think they're in
great hands with me. Pump tosee this Oregan squad spring game in Eugene.
Of course, we all have everyonecovered. Odd Tack twelve Network,
Saturday, April eighteenth, two pmPacific time. You got it on the
network as well at the pac twelvenow app.