Tim DeRuyter is not perfect.
Let’s get this out of the way early on. Super personal and smart guy in all accounts. Excellent defensive coordinator in Cal for the past two years with a 3-4 attack scheme that provides attack attacks. But when DeRuyter was the head coach at Fresno State, he made a big mistake when he recruited a Texas boy instead of a Fresno County native named Josh Allen.
Allen went to Wyoming.
DeRuyter was 30-30.
Which brings us to the big news from Friday – the Oregon Ducks must announce that DeRuyter will be hired to come in and direct the defense. The college football recruiting plant that operates at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex at the University of Oregon does not fail frequently. I like the hiring, if formalized. And I just mention DeRuyter’s main mixed coaching experience to make a point – some guys can actually recruit, others can train directly.
No one should be surprised that Oregon apparently turned its focus to DeRuyter when it came to hiring a defensive coordinator. The guy owns them.
DeRuyter tied Mario Cristobal’s attack on us for the past few seasons, limiting Oregon in two consecutive matches to 17 points per game.
That’s all the Ducks managed to face off against DeRuyter, including one with Justin Herbert as a defender. No other defensive coordinator on the schedule has kept OU on a more anemic exit in the past two seasons. No one else excluded Oregon twice in half. That’s why hiring DeRuyter is especially smart and, frankly, why I won’t be surprised if the Ducks stop the conference drought and win a spot in the College Football Playoff for the next few seasons.
This is going a long way, however.
DeRuyter likes to exert pressure and is an expert at hiding covers. He has that reputation as a good guy. Players, colleagues and the media praise him. But what I like most about this hiring is how it fits perfectly into Cristobal’s operation now.
Cristobal is still evolving as a head coach and game administrator. He’s a talented recruiter. Your message at the top of the program doesn’t make sense. Ducks operate with relentless energy. But there are glaring gaps in the game’s management. Not the kinds of problems that cost a Pac-12 title. But the kind of thing that sometimes makes you lose a game that you must win or keep it closer to than it should.
At Cal, DeRuyter was the country’s 263rd highest-paid assistant last season. His base salary of $ 400,000 ranked him as Pac-12’s No. 36 assistant. (His total compensation, including a retention bonus of $ 300,000, was $ 825,000). He will do more in Oregon and have a chance to win even more. This was not Cristobal’s most difficult recruitment and, frankly, it works for DeRuyter in other significant ways.
Oregon gets a great coach to join all that top talent. But DeRuyter has a chance to absorb some of the strengths of Cristobal’s head coach, especially recruitment. In addition, he will not have a defensive minded coach looking over his shoulder. If DeRuyter wants to be a head coach again, it means more than a payoff. Someday it is a bridge back to the position of chief, just like offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.
This is a good contract for the Ducks. Probably the best they could have done, since it turns DeRuyter from enemy to friend. No other candidate would have the combination of experience and familiarity with the conference. Washington was also looking for a defensive coordinator, and getting DeRuyter meant that the Ducks just beat them to the best candidate available on the West Coast.
I like Cristobal not to be afraid to bring in assistants with previous experience as head coach. First Moorhead, now DeRuyter. It smells like confidence. I told Cristobal this after he hired Moorhead, and he seemed confused about it. But I don’t think that every head coach at the conference welcomes new ideas and values of experience the way Cristobal does.
He likes to look out of the room for answers.
Cristobal did this with the hiring of Andy Avalos and again with Moorhead. Now, he did it with DeRuyter. There are three main hires. Perhaps outward-inward movements will harm some of Cristobal’s current employees. But I suspect that they recognize that what Oregon didn’t need now is to step aside. He had to step up. I didn’t need another great recruiter. I needed a coach.
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