Oregon Football: Ducks 2018 game-by-game predictions

Can Mario Cristobal bring stability to Oregon Football? The Ducks will have to navigate through the ever-challenging Pac-12.

College football fans are starting to get anxious as the start of the 2018 season is only weeks away. The Oregon Ducks are out to prove they were more than a flash in the pan of uniform combinations as Phil Knight’s benefactor. Mario Cristobal did a great job of securing the 2018 recruiting class after Willie Taggart’s departure. Oregon landed the country’s 13th best signing class per 247 sports, led by quarterback Tyler Shough.

Mario Cristobal’s first job will be to provide stability in Eugene, OR. The Ducks have been led by three different head coaches in three seasons proving that it figuratively rains in Autzen Stadium even if it doesn’t in a literal sense. The Ducks finished 2017 ranked 47th overall per the S&P+, and enter 2018 as Bill C’s 23rd ranked program.

Coach Cristobal decided to shift the focus from smaller, quicker linemen to a more power based unit and run game. He hired Jim Mastro, one of the engineers of the pistol offense at Nevada under Chris Ault so expect more of a downhill running game from the Ducks.

The biggest coup was keeping Jim Leavitt in the pacific northwest. Leavitt’s 3-4 defensive scheme is a perfect fit for linebacker Troy Dye and the defense the Ducks want opposite their power run offense. Expect an improvement to the Ducks and the Pac-12 in general in 2018. Here are the game-by-game predictions for the 2018 season.