Mario Cristobal has found his next defensive coordinator. The Ducks will hire Andy Avalos from Boise State to fill the role left by Jim Leavitt.

Avalos is one of the top young defensive coordinators in college football. He’s spent the last four seasons at Boise State as its defensive coordinator. Avalos graduated from Boise State as one of its most decorated linebackers in program history.

Along with his coordinator title, Avalos has worked with the linebackers and defensive linemen in his career.

Avalos was making roughly $335,000 at Boise State annually. That number will likely be closer to double that at Oregon, although contract details have yet to be released.

The Broncos have been one of the top defensive units in the Mountain West and nationally under Avalos. Boise State has been known for fundamentally sound, strong tackling units including a big win over Oregon in the Las Vegas bowl last year.

Currently Oregon has Keith Heyward and Joe Salave’a on staff as co-defensive coordinators. That title should remain for both even with the addition of Avalos.

From my man hythloday about a year ago, here is his synopsis of Avalos' 2017-2018 defense ahead of the Las Vegas bowl.

“DC Avalos' defense started the year as a hybrid 4-3 under with standard Tampa-2 coverage, where sometimes one of the traditional ends is replaced with a stand-up drop end (or STUD LB in Broncos' terminology) who might do anything from rush the passer outside to create a big B-gap blitz lane, to dropping all the way into deep coverage. (Actually, it reminded me of nothing so much as Nick Aliotti's 2006-11 defenses at Oregon, complete with fun fire-zone blitzing.) By midseason, however, it had evolved into a pretty regular 3-3-5, with the STUD used more than half the time and farther off the line, blitzes becoming rare and usually from the secondary, and the strongside backer sacrificed for a third safety playing man coverage on the slot.”