The question I have is, are the Oregon fans actually wrong though?
When you consider how weak the PAC-12 is & has been over the last 5 years, are they really that off base to expect to have more success considering they really don’t have much competition in the conference?
USC which is the traditional powerhouse of the PAC has been down for years now & Washington hasn’t been a major contender since 2016, so aside from Herm building up AZ St, who else should Oregon have to worry about? Even when Utah was on a run 2 years ago that was more of a testament to Whittingham getting them to play above their means rather them being a regular contender in the Pac especially since most of their previous success was when they were in the Mountain West.
It’s not that unrealistic for them to expect annual playoff appearances when winning the PAC-12 shouldn’t be that difficult for them to do with there not really being much tough comp for them to get past every year. Bellotti had this team humming in the PAC-10 days, then Chip Kelly picked up where Bellotti tapered off & ascended them into new heights had them burning down college football for a 4 year run, even Mark Helfrich was able to take the team to the playoffs where they gave FSU a historic beating. Oregon really only fell off after Helfrich got burned out (much like Richt) & Taggart finessed them for $3million & then left for FSU after 1 year lol.
Mario has done a good job getting them back to being the best team in the PAC-12, but in that case it’s always skewered by the fact they’re more than likely gonna miss playoffs every year because they have a few slip up games against teams they have no business losing to.
Oregon fans can be very delusional & ungrateful considering just a few seasons ago things looked really grim for them, but again, you have to factor in that in the PAC-12 USC & Washington are completely stagnant right now, so Oregon is really just competing themselves in the conference, which means all they have to do is handle their business & beat the teams they’re supposed to beat & they would be a shoo-in in the CFP as an undefeated PAC-12 champion.
I think another main reason the Oregon fans aren’t necessarily thrilled with Cristobal despite the success is they know the reason they’re going to drop a few games every year is because Mario’s offense isn’t up to the standard that Oregon identity was built on. His offense is some B1G power run ball control style sh*t that they don’t particularly like, it’s effective when you have a good defense, but it’s a dangerous when you’re playing a team with a good DLine that can go punch for punch with you & you end up in a late game nail-biter. Oregon fans are used to fast pace high octane uptempo offense that goes 100mph from the coin flip, Mario has them running that Moorehead Penn St offense & just like Penn St they’re due for at least 2 upsets a year against teams less talented than them because their offense is too predicated on ball control & not enough high powered scoring. That style of ball works most of the time, it’s just when it doesn’t it’s really frustrating to watch, because it’s possession after possession of all you needing is for one **** big play to crack open the game & it never comes.
I think most of our fans due to their desperation & fatigue of losing are assuming that Mario would build Miami up the same way he did Oregon & would have us in the same situation, but I will continue to caution fans, it ain’t as easy as you might think. The ACC is down just like the Pac-12 is, but the quality of players in the conference is absolutely 2nd to the SEC, meaning regardless of the records our conference does have very good players in it & winning the conference won’t be as easy it is in the PAC-12 because Miami is a lot further away from having a complete team as people might think we are.
If you’re expecting Mario to come here & turn it around in one or two seasons you might in for a rude awakening, even with Mario being heralded as the savior of Miami you guys will be equally as disappointed as Duck fans when we’re still struggling to be a 8-4 team in year 3.
This is just my opinion, but what Miami really needs is a coach to transform our entire identity (particularly on offense) into a team that has a schematic advantage in combination with an emphasis on recruiting speed. I think most fans are just looking at that Mario has landed some 5-stars up in Oregon & are assuming he’s going to do that here, but I’m telling yall that ball control style pound the rock offense is not gonna work here, if we really wanna become contenders we have to fully commit to becoming an offensive minded team that beats you through the air, we’re not gonna win this conference in the future trying to play Power Spread ball with Clemson & UNC.
