Amid all of the coaching and recruiting news is the lost fact that Oregon has a bowl game this weekend. A very important bowl game.

Not because it's the Las Vegas bowl and the Ducks play Boise State, but because it's the one and only game Mario Cristobal gets to coach until September.

It will be what recruits use as a measuring stick for those ten months. They wil either be confident, concerned or will forget about it in two weeks.

Boise State is no slouch. This is a tough game for Cristobal to walk into. With uncertainty around his staff and other distractions, it's going to be important he's able to keep the ship pointed forward.

The Broncos are 10-3 and first place in the Mountain West conference. Boise lost early in the season in a triple-overtime thriller to Washington State by 3 points. Two weeks later (week 4) they lost to Virginia and Bronco Mendenhall.

Boise rattled off 7 straight wins before a regular season loss to Fresno State. A week later they avenged that loss in the conference title game.

For Oregon you know the story. A tale of two quarterbacks When Oregon had Justin Herbert they were a high-flying point-scoring machine. Oregon closed out the last two games with big wins over Arizona and Oregon State by a combined score, 117-38.

Justin Herbert finished the regular season 1,750 pass yards with 13 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Brett Rypien had a strong year as well with 2,515 pass yards and 14 touchdowns against 4 interceptions.

Both teams are somewhat balanced offensively. Oregon has over 3,200 rush yards with 2,236 receiving yards. Boise has 3,300 receiving yards with just shy of 1,900 rush yards.

Both are reasonably balanced and play disciplined football.

Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch leads this Boise State defense with 81 total tackles. Linebacker Troy Dye is the heart and soul of this Oregon defense.

Kickoff is set for 12:30 PM PST on ABC.