The No. 20-ranked Ducks are calling it Oregon Football 2.0.
Under new head coach Mario Cristobal, the aim is to be more more physical and more disciplined, offering up a more bruising take on the green and yellow than fans—and opponents—are used to.
Only two games into the season, the results are already apparent. The most penalized team in the nation last year, in 2018 the Ducks find themselves the 16th-least-penalized team in the country, and the least-penalized team in the Pac-12. Two-tight-end sets are more common, clearing holes for the running backs to power through. While Tony Brooks-James garnered the preseason coverage, the leading rusher so far is the more powerful CJ Verdell, whose 161 yards on 24 carries are good for a 6.5 yards-per-carry average.
But one key thing has remained the same under Cristobal: the Ducks are still scoring points in a hurry.
Of the UO's 17 touchdown drives through two games, 10 have lasted less than 2 minutes, while four have taken less than a minute. Only two scoring drives have needed more than 10 plays, with one of those coming late against Portland State when the Ducks were trying to run time off the clock. During one 15-minute span in the first half against Bowling Green, the team rattled off 37 unanswered points.
The UO boasts the fourth-highest-scoring offense in the country, and only two teams have made more trips to the end zone. While the Ducks are yet to face a marquee opponent, two weeks into the season the same can be said of a number of the teams in the top-25, many of whom have feasted on lesser competition, including Power Five cellar dwellers who carry name recognition but not much else while they rebuild.
No. 4 Ohio State? Their two opponents have been Oregon State, who went 1-11 last year, with the only win being a three-point victory over Portland State, and Rutgers, who finished 4-8 in 2017. No. 6 Wisconsin has beaten Western Kentucky, who went 6-7 as a Conference USA side last year, and New Mexico, a Mountain West program that finished 3-9 last time out. No. 14 West Virginia opened up against a Tennessee team that, last year, went 4-8 and became the first Volunteers squad to not win a single conference game; the Mountaineers followed that up with a game against Youngstown State, who were 6-5 playing in the FCS' Missouri Valley Conference in 2017.
They can't all be UW-Auburn or LSU-Miami—though the Ducks will face the Auburn Tigers in next year's season opener.
Quarterback Justin Herbert entered the 2018 season as one of the early favorites to hear his name called first in next year's NFL Draft. So far he hasn't disappointed, and is tied for second nationally with nine touchdown passes, and is sixth nationally in passing efficiency. When his rushing touchdown against Bowling Green is added to his stats, his 30-points-per-game average is the third best in the country, behind only the signal callers from Houston and Hawaii.
The UO passing game has spread the love around too, with 13 different players catching passes through two games, and six different players catching touchdowns. The leading beneficiary of Herbert's accuracy and arm strength has been sophomore wide receiver Jaylon Redd, who leads the team in catches (5), yards (117), and touchdowns (3).
The running game has been shared among six different running backs, four of whom have rushed for touchdowns (those figures exclude Herbert, whose 65 yards rushing are good for fourth on the team and who has rushed for one touchdown). Verdell has the most yards, with 161; Brooks-James has the most carries, with 26, and is tied with goal-line back Cyrus Habibi-Likio with two touchdowns; while Travis Dye's 11 carries have gone for 95 yards, giving him a yards-per-carry average of 8.6, tied for the 10th-best average nationally.
The way the 2017 season ended left a bad taste in many Ducks fans' mouths. Since 1977, only six men have led the Ducks out onto the field at Autzen Stadium; no Pac-12 team has had fewer head coaches since Rich Brooks took over the UO program, while four conference rivals are already into double digits. But when Willie Taggart bolted for Florida State University after a single season, one that ended with the UO's third-straight bowl loss, Cristobal became the UO’s third head coach in as many years. No other Pac-12 school has had more coaches in that span—Oregon State is the only other school with three—making the Pac-12’s most stable program suddenly its most unstable.
Cristobal, a master recruiter who was ranked the nation’s best as recently as 2015, started his tenure by inking the nation’s 13th-ranked recruiting class, the UO’s highest-ranked class in seven years and one that featured 12 four-star recruits (per 247 Sports). His 2019 class is already considered the nation’s fourth best, and while the Ducks don’t have any five-star recruits lined up, they do have 13 four-star players on the list.
The class is already making its mark felt. True freshman Penei Sewell has started both games at left tackle, protecting Herbert's blindside before he's even taken his first class during the fall term. Karsten Battles, the third-ranked long snapper in the country coming out of high school, is already atop the UO's depth chart. Cornerback Verone McKinley III, running back Travis Dye, and cornerback Kahlef Hailassie have all been heavily involved, while linebacker Adrian Jackson started against Portland State in place of the injured La'Mar Winston Jr.
But Cristobal's best recruit may well have been one who sits in the coaches room with him from Monday through Friday.
During Mark Helfrich’s final season at the helm, with Brady Hoke serving as defensive coordinator, the Ducks ranked 116th nationally in total defense, 116th in red zone defense, and 73rd in red zone defense; with new defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt calling the shots under Taggart last year, those numbers improved to 46th overall, 60th in red zone defense, and 25th in rushing defense.
Since falling behind 10-0 early against Bowling Green, the team has only allowed 28 total points, and currently ranks 39th in the country and sixth in the Pac-12 in total defense. Leavitt's unit has also helped put points on the board, as senior safety Ugochukwu Amadi returned a Jarret Doege pass for a touchdown early in the second half against the Falcons.
Up next is one final tuneup against San Jose State, a winless Spartans team that was just shut out by Washington State. The meat of the schedule begins the following week, when No. 9 Stanford comes to Eugene for a game that will be broadcast nationally on ABC and could play host to ESPN's College Gameday.
- by Damian Foley, assistant director of marketing and communications. Photos by Eric Evans.