The last time Christian Gonzalez played inside Autzen Stadium, he was playing for a Buffaloes secondary that gave up 52 points and saw the Ducks hand Colorado a 23-point loss.
But now Gonzalez is looking forward to turning those 56,000 fans inside Autzen into fans of his as he trades the brown and gold of Colorado for the green and yellow of Oregon.
Although he is listed as a sophomore, he one of the elder statesmen when it comes to the Oregon secondary with his two full seasons in Boulder. In his career, Gonzalez has 65 tackles, 13 assisted, five for loss and 10 passes defended.
In 2021, he started all 12 games at corner and finished fifth on the team and first among defensive backs with 53 tackles (42 solo).
That experience will help the Duck corners such as Trikweze Bridges, Jahlil Florence, Dontae Manning and others.
According to Gonzalez, the Oregon secondary is getting better by the day.
“They’ve grown a lot. It’s been fun to come in and be looked at as a veteran and a leader,” he said, “and to help these guys learn the defense to how to go about college. They’re moving around really well and I’m excited to watch them.”
The first chance to watch them will be on Saturday when the Ducks travel to Atlanta to play No. 3 Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game.
In the first two games Gonzalez played against the Ducks, ( 2019 – 2021 ), his Colorado team was outscored 97-32 and lost by an average of 32.5 points.
Although Oregon is 17-point underdogs to Georgia, Gonzalez is now playing with better talent all around him and this first-time experience should be better than his previous two games against the Ducks.
“I tell them (his teammates) that everybody is athletic when you get to this level,” he said.
“The biggest thing to me, what I picked up, is that you have to practice like you want to play. That’s something you really don’t have to do in high school because you’re so much more athletic than everybody. But now since everyone is on the same level, you have to practice like you want to play.”
Gonzalez has played on the highest levels in high school coming out of Texas.
He was a four-star prospect ranked as one of the top 50 players from that state by 247Sports, Rivals, and ESPN. Gonzalez was also named to the All-Midlands Regional team by PrepStar and 247Sports gave him a rating of 90 as the No. 307 player nationally, No. 28 safety, and No. 42 player overall from the state of Texas.
He’s played in big games before, but nothing quite like facing the No. 3 team and the defending national champs. Gonzalez says to just go out there and play a game.
“We’re playing a game, not the opponent. It’s football. We’ve all been doing this since we were 5-years old,” Gonzalez said.
“It’s the same game … just go out and do our job and see what happens.”
TUESDAY MEDIA BRIEFING; Oregon CB Christian Gonzalez