Complimentary Football a case study. (Oregon Football)

    


 

    I met Mario Christobal when I was employed by FIU and he was The Golden Panthers Football coach in 2010. I was impressed by his gravitas and his command of the room that resonated respect. It was very clear that he was a leader of men and not surprising that he became a rising star as a football coach. I immediately became a fan to the extent that I was intrigued enough to follow his career. 

    In 2018 Christobal was hired as the head coach of Oregon, as a fan I celebrated his opportunity with an institution with endless resources. I felt he had the pedigree and opportunity to do great things. However Oregon is a west coast team and my interest in his progress dimmed with my access to Pac 12 football.

    The 2019 college football season was one of the most important college seasons for me as a football fan. My beloved Dolphins where in position to draft a franchise QB and one of their options was Oregons signal caller Herbert. I recorded every Oregon football game and watched with a clinical eye. Beside my focus on the QB I saw a ridiculously talented team. NFL starters EVERYWHERE. Nevertheless they where not prolific winners.

    I focused mainly on the QB position, I was impressed by Herbert and was on record that I wouldn't be against the Dolphins drafting him. However, I was so discouraged by the offense that I couldn't accurately evaluate his talent. The offense was built to maximize his talents by spreading out the defense and running a very finesse approach, and the defense was designed under the presumption that they would be playing with the lead giving the talent on offense and the well advertise incompetence of Pac 12 defense. I can confidently say that Oregon has been the most talented team in the Pac 12 since Christobal took over. 

    Mario designed his team to take advantage of the principle of complimentary football. In short, build a defense that is strategically constructed to exploit a lead. A sound fundamental principle, a tragic miscalculation in practice. Complimentary football is a corner stone of efficient football, it is a talking point, a cliche, a practical reality to pursue. Yet, it isn't a principle of team building, it is an exercise of game planning. Building a roster using the philosophy of complimentary football is a practice of presumption and arrogance to assume you can accurately predict the individual strengths of young undeveloped players.

    Complimentary football when employed properly is an understanding that flexibility engrained in your tactics is imperative if you can have the humility to admit that evaluating young football players is almost impossible. To build a roster to compliment each others talents, is to assume you where accurate in evaluating that talent, a foolish exercise of hubris.

    When I witnessed Utah embarrass Oregon running 13 personal (1RB, 3TE) It further verified my theory. They beat a team that was constructed to be complimentary, with a less talented team taking advantage of their miscalculation with true complimentary football tactics, not team construction.


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