When Mario Cristobal assumed the position of head football coach at Oregon, he had a number of tasks to complete. Hire (or promote) an offensive coordinator, retain his defensive coordinator and hire a number of assistants.

But one move he made as quickly, or quicker, as those hires was something else. Oregon lost strength coach Irele Oderinde to FSU along with Willie Taggart. Which we'll call a mutual separation, both sides got what they wanted.

Mario Cristobal moved swiftly hiring his replacement. After interviewing more than a half dozen candidates at Oregon with his [then] staff, Cristobal found his man. Aaron Feld who was an assistant on the Georgia staff.

Yes the man with the jaw-dropping stache.

Coach Feld finished his championship-run at Georgia before packing up and heading to Eugene. A place he had never been but said feels like home already.

"I love it in Eugene, the rain doesn't bother me at all," Feld told ScoopDuck. "My wife and I have already hiked Spencer's Butte twice and we love it. The area is just unbelievable. It reminds me of Birmingham (Ala.) where I grew up. It's very intimate but it's big enough to have it all. My wife and I (and the rescued pit bulls) are very happy here. She's as happy as I've seen her in quite some time."

Look, I'll admit it. On the surface many of us will see a strength coach and likely apply a 'meathead' label in a lot of cases. But I assure you, Aaron Feld is anything but. His main job is to get this Oregon football team physically ready for competitive Pac-12 play.

However that's not all he's doing. One of the first major points of emphasis for Feld with this team was the mindset program. That's right the strength coach brought in an emphasis on mental prepartion, not just physical.

Below is what I could glean from coach Feld in a 15-minute or so phone interview. Admittedly I likely know more about the program (from outside) than most. It wasn't until I started talking to coach Feld when I realized how little I ACTUALLY knew and just how deep it goes.

Often times you'll hear me mention the foundation Mario Cristobal is laying for this program. Not just to win this season or next, but to have sustained success over the long haul like his former boss, sir Nicholas Saban.

One of those key, nay, critical components has been this mindset program Oregon has adopted.

I'm going to attempt to relay the notes from my call with Coach Feld as best as possible. In order to properly relay them to you I'm going to simply just start writing quotes and less of my own injecture so I don't dilute the product.

"It's just a constant program, a constant upward movement. It's more of a cycle, not steps really. The main goal is to make them comfortable and confident within themselves. One of the first things I had to to do coming in was evaluate this team and where they are. A lot of times you see coaches coaching the team they want, not what they have. I needed to evaluate where we are and work with these players. I wanted to adjust for what we have, not what we wanted."

Apparently the one thing that proved to be most difficult upon his arrival was really a strength.

"These guys go too hard. We can't slow them down sometimes enough to teach them everything. They are all so hungry and eager to learn and get better they just go a million miles an hour. For years some of them have heard the negativity about being smaller or not as strong and it pushed them to get bigger and stronger. They were hungry when I got here and that's made this a lot easier for me."

Coach Cristobal's appreciation for what Aaron Feld does has made the chemistry between the two a key to the success of Feld's efforts.

"I'm really fortunate to work for someone like coach Cristobal. He gets what we are doing, he knows all of this is important for the team. We get two 15 minute mindset meetings a week. We break down habit forming as one of the pieces of the cycle. It's important to teach these young men how to talk to themselves about themselves. They need to learn to critique their own abilities but in a positive way. The main goal is to make them comfortable and confident with themselves. We want to teach them it's ok to talk out loud to yourself or even in your own mind. Some people think it's crazy to talk out loud to yourself or you're crazy for doing it. It's actually extremely healthy and a great habit."

This element is a key to one of the cycles in order to eliminate some of the thinking that slows players down.

"We are teaching them what habits are and how forming habits effect results. If you build good habits it helps eliminate the thinking that slows you down. One of the things coach (Matt) Fyle and I took away from our time in the military is S.O.P. Standard operating procedure. So when stuff hits the fan, what do you revert to? Your habits. You revert back to what comes naturally. That's why it's important we teach these young men about habits and why good habit forming is important for success."

Often times folks might get a video or glimpse of coach Feld running around screaming. He's quite good at it as I can attest to first hand. However his yelling has a purpose. Especially the tone of his yelling.

"100-percent intensity isn't always screaming and yelling. You can be 100-percent focused in a meeting or in training just by paying attention. It doesn't always have to be yelling to be intense. I'm big on positive language. I don't believe in negative energy. So you will rarely (if ever) hear me yell something negative. I'm trying to pour positive energy into our team. When I get quiet is when these guys know they need to pick it up. There's been times in the weight room I'm dead quiet, you can hear a pin drop and I don't have to say anything. The guys know it's time to pick it back up."

In a surprising turn of events, this is just part 1 of a 2 or possibly 3-part series with coach Feld. In our phone interview he was kind enough to cover so much ground on what he's doing it will be broken down into multiple parts.

Check back on Thursday to read more from Coach Feld and his work with the Oregon football program.