It’s so difficult to take any ranking seriously where Oregon’s own Mario Cristobal is ranked below his former offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo.
In his most recent article (subscription needed) ESPN’s senior writer Adam Rittenberg went ahead and ranked all 130 FBS head coaches … as players. Given that one caveat, then Arroyo could be ranked ahead of Cristobal.
Then again, maybe not.
Cristobal was a starting offensive lineman for not one, but two of Miami’s national championship teams in 1989 and 1991. A decade later, Arroyo was the starting quarterback for traditional bottom feeder San Jose State.
During his time with the Spartans (1998-2002), to his credit, Arroyo did lead SJSU to one of the better seasons when he led his team to a 7-5 record, the most wins since 1992. But considering the competition or lack of it, it’s difficult to quantify how good Arroyo really was.
According to Rittenberg, Cristobal as a player is ranked 40th among the current coaches and the UNLV coach is ranked three spots above Oregon’s.
Of course, all of this is subjective and everyone has their own opinions on such things, but when Arroyo has been ranked ahead of Cristobal in anything, that’s going to turn the head of every Oregon fan.
[listicle id=3849]