Mario Cristobal emerged on Monday afternoon as a possible candidate to replace Clay Helton at USC. Given Urban Meyer’s name was part of the social media buzz following Helton’s dismissal, all sorts of names are going to be mentioned. That doesn’t mean those names should be taken seriously.
Urban Meyer isn’t leaving the NFL and Trevor Lawrence in Year 1 to coach USC. Mario Cristobal is not leaving his program at Oregon to coach USC. Oregon has shown great faith and trust in Cristobal, and that trust was rewarded over the weekend with a huge win over Ohio State in Columbus. Cristobal and Oregon are very happy to be with each other. It is a blissful marriage.
The Ducks currently have the inside track to the College Football Playoff. Cristobal isn’t jumping ship. That’s the job he wants. It’s the kind of job he craved after curiously not getting a big-time head coaching offer for several years following his stint at Florida International. Nothing about Cristobal to USC makes the slightest bit of sense. If you know someone who is entertaining that possibility, tell that person it ain’t happening. Period.
This doesn’t mean, however, USC couldn’t pluck a Duck from Eugene and bring him to Los Angeles.
First of all, USC has a history of taking coaches from Oregon:
Beyond that, Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead would be a perfectly acceptable choice if the top realistic candidates — Luke Fickell of Cincinnati, Matt Campbell of Iowa State and James Franklin of Penn State — all say no to Mike Bohn.
Moorhead gashed Ohio State’s defense even though Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown completed under 50 percent of his passes (17 of 35) and didn’t throw a ball more than 25 yards in the air. Oregon’s longest pass play was 30 yards, and that was roughly a 20-yard throw with roughly a 10-yard run after the catch. Oregon didn’t throw very many deep balls and didn’t complete a single deep shot. The Ducks played this game in a six-yard box for nearly the entire proceedings and were still able to rush for almost 300 yards against an Ohio State front seven.
Does that tell you how good Moorhead is as an offensive scheme and play designer?
The key — as we noted in this column on the Washington Huskies’ crisis with Jimmy Lake — is that if Mike Bohn interviews Moorhead for the head coaching job, he needs to know the defensive coordinator hiring list is a strong one. Athletic directors have to know the opposite coordinator list for a head coach with expertise on one side of the ball.
Moorhead, coupled with a strong defensive coordinator, would be perfectly fine for USC — maybe not what fans would initially want or expect, but he would certainly bring competence to the job. That’s what Trojan fans want, need, and deserve.
Bonus point: Taking Moorhead away from Mario Cristobal would weaken Oregon.
USC could surely do a lot worse than Joe Moorhead. Just don’t think Cristobal will consider flying south. That Duck won’t hunt.
