SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Some 12 months and two weeks have passed since Mario Cristobal made his UO head coaching debut, in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl.
Out of that chaos has emerged the potential for big things as the Ducks move forward under their first-year head coach. They posted eight wins in a regular season for the first time since 2015, won a Pac-12 road game for the first time since 2016, signed a recruiting class universally ranked in the top-10 nationally for the first time ever, and recently learned that most every draft-eligible junior plans to stick around for 2019, including quarterback Justin Herbert.