Oregon Football: 5 bold predictions for Ducks’ 2019 season

Oregon football under Mario Cristobal has recruited well enough to contend in 2019. These are five bold predictions for the Ducks’ season.

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal has a vision for the Oregon football program. He’s building this team from the trenches first. This should come to no surprise since Cristobal is a former offensive lineman for the Miami. Not only that, but he was the offensive line coach at Alabama after a not so great stint as the head coach of FIU.

We learned two things about Cristobal while at Tuscaloosa: He can coach linemen and he can flat-out recruit. Both of these he’s carried into his second act as a head coach.

The Ducks have had the best recruiting classes in the Pac-12 for the last two cycles and landed the No. 2 defensive line recruit in the country Kavyon Thibodeau in 2019.

Oregon has everything in front of it this season to prove the Ducks are ready to rejoin the country’s elite for the first time since the Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich eras. During that time from 2009-18 the Ducks won two Rose Bowls, played for two national titles, and won four Pac-12 titles.

Is this the season the Ducks return to national prominence? Will all the talent come together? Are the Ducks a legit playoff contender?