[Goose]

Ultimately, to make it to the top requires both recruiting and coaching chops.  Cristobal was good at the former, but a loss to a bad Stanford team and two bad losses to Utah call into question the latter.  Duck fans aren’t looking for a coach to take them to the Alamo bowl. So Oregon may view Cristobal’s departure to Miami in much the same way that Washington viewed Sarkisian’s departure to USC.  He was doing well enough that it would have been tough to fire him, but not so well that it was worth overbidding to keep him.


BC

Agree, and I think it is an apt analogy. Many Oregon fans had decided Cristobal had reached his ceiling. Fans are often wrong, but I suspect the "powers that be" (Knight et al) probably agreed. Cristobal never presented a persona of great competence. He had a bit of Clay Helton in him. When Oregon won, it always seemed Cristobal was just "present". It was never because he did anything remarkable. However,when they lost, it was usually in the presence of questionable coaching decisions. There were also cases where his team just didn't show up.

[Goose]

Ultimately, to make it to the top requires both recruiting and coaching chops.  Cristobal was good at the former, but a loss to a bad Stanford team and two bad losses to Utah call into question the latter.  Duck fans aren’t looking for a coach to take them to the Alamo bowl. So Oregon may view Cristobal’s departure to Miami in much the same way that Washington viewed Sarkisian’s departure to USC.  He was doing well enough that it would have been tough to fire him, but not so well that it was worth overbidding to keep him.


BC

Agree, and I think it is an apt analogy. Many Oregon fans had decided Cristobal had reached his ceiling. Fans are often wrong, but I suspect the "powers that be" (Knight et al) probably agreed. Cristobal never presented a persona of great competence. He had a bit of Clay Helton in him. When Oregon won, it always seemed Cristobal was just "present". It was never because he did anything remarkable. However,when they lost, it was usually in the presence of questionable coaching decisions. There were also cases where his team just didn't show up.