PASADENA, Calif. - Workers charged with setting up the post-game news conference for 106th Rose Bowl draped a black linen table cloth over a line of tables at the front of the room. Next came microphones, chairs, and a long beautiful braid of giant red roses placed across the front of the table top.
Oregon beat Wisconsin 28-27 on Wednesday.
The Ducks are Rose Bowl champions. But the most interesting and unusual thing happened at the post-game news conference -- two side doors opened and in walked the Oregon Ducks carrying a pile of life lessons.
Ducks’ coach Mario Cristobal was flanked by his star quarterback, Justin Herbert. The Eugene kid who grew up watching Oregon football had just carried his team to a Rose Bowl victory not with his arm, but with three rushing touchdowns.
“Things can have a funny way of working out,” Herbert said.
Next to him was Brady Breeze, the Defensive Player of the Game. Another Oregon-born kid. The Medford native who also played at Central Catholic High, transformed in college from a defensive back who couldn’t get on the field to one you’d never want to take off it.
For all the talk about Southern California recruiting, it was two Oregonians who ruled the day. Two kids who grew up wearing Ducks’ jerseys and watching the Rose Bowl put the football program over the top in Pasadena.
Said Breeze: “I couldn’t have dreamed or even fathomed playing in a Rose Bowl let alone winning the Rose Bowl, scoring a touchdown in a Rose Bowl and seeing Justin score three touchdowns, it’s just amazing.”
Breeze went on and on, too. He talked about his teammates. He talked about watching Oregon beat Florida State in the 2015 Rose Bowl, even noting where he sat with his family in the stands. And he talked about the clock running out, and teammates crying, and how his mind is officially blown.
I loved every word.
In fact, Breeze spoke so long on that single answer -- more than four giddy minutes in all -- that one of the UO media relations staffers finally leaned in and asked if the Rose Bowl might institute an Oscar-ceremony wrap cue.
“Is this when they start playing the music?” he said.
That wasn’t all that happened. Not even close. Because along with Cristobal in the news conference were his two young sons, Rocco, 8, and Matteo, 9. The younger son climbed up the stairs where the table sat wearing a “Rose Bowl Champions” hat and stood to his father’s side. The older son slid into a folding chair beside dad and was carrying two short-stemmed red roses.
Let’s take a small step back here.
Oregon had a really nice season. It won 12 games, captured the Pac-12 Conference championship and is now a Rose Bowl champion, too. Two more trophies. A lot of celebrating. For a program that is on its third coach in four seasons this has to be about as good as it gets.
Watching Cristobal take over the program has been a study in shifting culture and life lessons. He commands the respect of his players. He keeps his word. He spends more cumulative hours at the office than any coach I’ve covered in 25 seasons.
He’s also gifted at limiting and deflecting the influence from outsiders on his program.
Cristobal said of that outside noise, “it’s not there with us at 5 a.m. when we’re training, it’s not there late at night when we’re getting extra treatment.”
The guy has done a lot right in a short time. Still, football can be a cruel and unforgiving mistress. Ask coach Paul Chryst in the Wisconsin locker room. Four turnovers. A questionable pass-interference call. More yards, more plays, more time of possession and all of that on Wednesday got him an air sandwich, Pasadena-style.
That’s the game. They all know when they sign on. The football gods aren’t always just.
Cristobal is a rare case of a coach, in year No. 2, who appears to be getting a pretty fair return from his investment. The Oregon program trajectory is positive. His humility is in check. He even said after the win, “There’s so much more growth here.”
I agree -- in fact, he’s a good bet to make the College Football Playoff in the next three seasons.
It’s just unfolding perfectly for UO, isn’t it?
Wednesday was a case study in that. Because I don’t necessarily know if Oregon was the better team or if they had the better plan. But I do think the Ducks deserved to win. They made more big plays, and seized on a line of unfortunate Wisconsin miscues. And it was the wonderful scene after the game that I’ll go home thinking on and talking about.
It was charming, authentic and maybe a glimpse into the secret sauce of Cristobal. Because on that stage he bristled at the idea that he’s some kind of football czar running a one-man operation.
“Never has been. Never will be," he said. "We do things as a family.”
When he said that Cristobal was flanked by his children on one side, and his two players on the other side. Later, as Herbert was answering a question about his legacy, Cristobal leaned down and pulled Rocco close and kissed the kid on the top of his head. And at another point, with Breeze speaking, the coach craned his body toward his sons and whispered to them.
“I want you guys," Cristobal told them, "to grow up to be like those guys.”
He was talking about Herbert and Breeze, down the way, in uniform, still walking on Rose Bowl air.
I don’t know if Matteo and Rocco are going to grow up and play major college football. Maybe they’ll play for dad and win a Rose Bowl someday, too. But we all sort of understand at a moment like that, with Breeze and Herbert, fulfilling childhood dreams, that anything is possible.
We’re sold that as children.
Certainly, life hardens us. Bad things happen. Adversity hits. But here, on the post-game stage, was a real-life example of two kids who grew up pretending to score touchdowns for the Oregon Ducks... actually scoring ALL of the touchdowns for the Ducks in a Rose Bowl.
The trip to this moment wasn’t all fun.
Remember, Herbert’s team went 4-8 as a freshman. He broke a collarbone. He watched one coach get fired, another leave for Florida State, and now, he’s headed to the NFL as a Rose Bowl champ. And it took the coaches at Oregon a long while to figure out how talented a football player Breeze is. But it’s undeniable that their collective journey has hit a inspiring high-point.
One that we all got to witness.
“You go your entire career hoping to coach guys like this,” Cristobal said, “... it’s -- these dudes right here, I want to be like these guys. That’s why I have them around me all the time. They’re not -- I’m not going to let them get on the microphone anytime soon, but I want them to be just like these guys. That to me is the greatest compliment you can give a young man.”
Cristobal’s two children beamed when he said it.
His players smiled, too.
And not because they won a Rose Bowl.
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