The debut of Mario Cristobal has a major spotlight on it. Not only because of the hire, but the fact is this is one of the few early bowl games and there will be a lot of eyeballs on this one.

Fair or not, the hire of Mario Cristobal will be judged by this game for the next 10 months. And unfortunately he faces a pesky Boise State team not short on talent.

If he wants to win this game today, as I'm sure he does, here are three keys to victory.

Control the line of scrimmage

This is an emphasis of Mario Cristobal as a head coach. And we've seen the offensive line take a major step forward this season under his direction. The defensive line also took a step forward under Big Joe as well.

This is a chance for Oregon to be the more physical and dominant team. I think the Ducks will be able to wear down Boise in the second half if they keep coming and rotate often to stay fresh. I'm not sure there is any bigger key than this one right here. Dominating the line of scrimmage will make it a lot easier for both sides of the ball to be successful.

Be Disciplined

One of the biggest flaws of a Willie Taggart-led team has been penalties and discipline. I don't expect Mario Cristobal to fix that in two weeks but Oregon can not continue to shoot itself in the foot with senseless penalties and mistakes.

The safeties need to stay disciplined and not let receivers get behind them. The offensive line needs to remember its cadence and stay in sync.

Mario Cristobal has his plate full enough already, he doesn't need to make his job harder with having to overcome 100+ penalty yards and turnovers in the red zone.

With the uncertainty around some of the coaching staff, hopefully this doesn't become an item of concern today with anyone possibly being 'already checked out.'

Run the Football

There is no doubt Mario Cristobal will want to impose his will on this Boise State team. It's in his DNA. Luckily he has Marcus Arroyo to counter him with an extensive passing background.

WIth no Royce Freeman in this one, the Ducks success on the ground will be key. The offense is more effective when they are able to run the ball on first down and shorten 2nd and 3rd downs. Once this gets going it opens up the passing lanes for Justin Herbert to pick them apart.

But all of that is set up with forcing the defense to stack the box and try to stop the run. However they must run effectively in order to do that and it is a big key to this game for Oregon.

I expect we see a healthy dose of Kani Benoit and a coming out party for Darrian Felix.