Well, Cristobal finally called it quits this week.

Clara, that is.

Mario Cristobal’s mother retired after 38 years spent as the title clerk at Kendall Toyota in Miami. I called the place on Wednesday morning and the receptionist informed me that I missed some bang-up going away celebration.

Her son did not.

On Wednesday, Mario was busy locking down the final pieces of the school’s greatest recruiting class in history. But before national signing day was in the books, he had a 4:15 a.m. workout, a triple-shot of Cuban coffee, and called his mother to wish her a congratulations.

You should know, a wall at his mother’s house still has a Mario-built mural on it that pays tribute to Jack Lambert and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mario, obsessed with the world-champion Steelers teams of the mid to late 1970s, cut out magazine pictures when he was 5 years old, and affixed them to the walls.

“I even memorized the roster," he said, “... stucco walls rule!”

The Ducks coach will catch a red-eye to Miami on Wednesday night, “just to check on her and then get right back with our guys." But the hope here is that Cristobal spends a few minutes on the flight, or maybe alongside his mother, reflecting on the longevity of mom and that crumbling mural.

If Cristobal wins big, Miami will come calling one day.

Maybe the NFL, too.

I hope, like his mother and that car dealership, Cristobal views UO as the kind of place he’d like to stick around.

Cristobal is trying to change the feel of the line of scrimmage in the Pac-12. I’d like for him to change the trajectory of Oregon’s program and fill the blue-chip program gap created by the deterioration of USC in the conference. There’s an opportunity there for a program willing to invest, and Oregon feels uniquely positioned with its donor base.

Fact is, with conference media-rights distribution lagging millions annually behind the Power Five peers, a university that relies less upon that Pac-12 subsidy could really accelerate.

“I think our conference needs to continue to add those big-body types at the line of scrimmage," he told the media on Wednesday while unveiling a class that supports it.

I’m encouraged by Cristobal’s recruiting, and his energy. I like his background. I don’t think he’s been handed much of anything in life, and because of it, understands the value of sweat equity.

That said, I’m not sold on the makeup of his current coaching staff.

I think he’s going to have to make some difficult decisions on the offensive side of the ball. Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo needs some help. And also, I’m uneasy about defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt, who interviewed for the Ducks' head coaching job but came in second to Cristobal.

Leavitt’s contract pays him an average of only $800,000 a year less than Cristobal ($2.5 million). And by all outside appearances, he’s happy to be employed at Oregon and doing a fine job. He even took to Twitter this week to announce, “Happiest I’ve been in awhile. Been gone 3 weeks and to come back and see the players was incredible! These guys are special! Go Ducks!!”

I remain skeptical that Cristobal-Leavitt is a long-term fit. I’d love to be wrong. But you’ve got conflicting agendas here. One guy wants to build something great. The other guy had to be wishing someone tapped him on the shoulder to be a head coach. Additionally, Oregon has Keith Heyward on the defensive staff, and he’s ripe for a coordinator promotion.

These things happen in major college athletics. Egos find a way to co-exist.

But keep an eye on that.

Now, I’ve buried the real news in this column. On Wednesday I asked Cristobal about his mother, Clara. Specifically, I wanted to know if seeing his mother put in nearly four decades at one automobile dealership -- true longevity at one stop -- resonates at all with him.

He shot back: “This is where I’m staying."