In a interview with Birmingham, Alabama's WJOX 3-Man Front radio program on Wednesday, Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal raved about his new home of Autzen Stadium. The Oregon head coach was on the flagship Alabama Crimson Tide station earlier today catching up with the Alabama sports hosts when the topic of Autzen was brought up.

One of the hosts asked Mario Cristobal about how Autzen Stadium compares to the stadiums in the SEC. Here's what Cristobal had to say:

It’s as good as any SEC stadium. Autzen absolutely rocks man… You gotta come up for a game and I think it will answer your questions quickly. It is mainical, it is fanatical. The moment we walked out there, including the spring game, it did not disappoint. It is rukus, it is insane, the energy is off the charts. It fits in really well and supersedes a lot of the ones in the SEC.

Cristobal is no stranger to the SEC and other major stadiums in the south. As the offensive line coach at Alabama from 2013-2016 and working as a college football coach since 1998, Cristobal has had plenty of time to check out the other stadiums in the country.

Aside from Autzen, Cristobal had good things to say about Eugene. "It’s a place you just fall in love with. Because the way the community is, the way that the energy surrounds football."

Throughout the thirteen minute interview, Cristobal was asked about retaining Jim Leavitt, Justin Herbert and his relationship with Phil Knight. Here's some of the highlights.

How key it was retaining Jim Leavitt on the staff?

I think it's kind of more the whole picture of the guys in general meaning that Jim Leavitt, Joe salave'a, Keith Heyward. I mean those guys together on the defensive side as well as Marcus Arroyo and Mike Johnson and Cody Woodiel and Gilbertson on the offensive side. The whole thing we were putting together a year ago, for those guys to want to stick around and be here and get a feel which direction we’re heading? I thought it was huge. It’s never about one person, It’s never about one player, it’s the whole thing together. Their belief in the whole process is strong, it led us to this situation where we are now.

What is your primary recruiting focus in how you’re going to attract players to Eugene, Oregon?

We know tomorrow what we did do it Alabama and you have your five to six hour radius and you want to focus primarily on the west coast but Oregon is a national Brands and so you want to be able to go out to specific parts of the country and cherry pick the best players that you can possibly get. I know texas has been great for us. Florida has been great, the northeast brought us a great player this past year. Love to do as much work as we can east of the Mississippi without compromising really sinking our teeth into what we have to do on the west coast.

On Justin Herbert and his potential:

Yeah he's a real one guys. He's as good as anyone that I've been around at that position. Real Deal competitor, ultra smart, long kid now. I mean it's kind of surprising as you come up on him how big he really is. I mean he’s scratching 6’6 and he’s all of 240 pounds. He can make every throw, he can make every run. Again, we’re blessed to have him and the best part about it, the guy has generated a ton of progress towards being a great leader. We’ve got a really good offensive line and some good pieces around him. When we were healthy last year with him at the helm, we were pretty good offensively, we had some struggles without him. We expect to take a pretty significant jump this year.

How many conversations have you had with Phil Knight and how has your sneaker collection increased?

Well it’s increased but I’m honest with myself. I just don’t look as cool as some other people in this cool Nike stuff. I’ve always been a solid color guy, the strong green, the strong yellow, all that stuff fits me great. It’s extraordinary the resources we have thanks to Phil and Penny Knight. I’ll tell you what guys, the happiest I was in terms of gear attainment was the day I was able to get my old school original Air Jordans. That was to me a difference maker. It was a great day.

You can listen to the full interview from WJOX here