Twenty-four years ago, ASU’s Director of Player Personnel Al Luginbill was in Amsterdam coaching the Admirals of NFL Europe.

In his first season coaching professional football, Luginbill’s Admirals went 9-1 before losing to the Frankfurt Galaxy in the 1995 World Bowl. His team -- and, really, NFL Europe as a whole -- was full of guys eager to prove themselves, eager to show NFL teams they could still play.

And some did. Future NFL Hall of Fame kicker Adam Vinatieri played for Luginbill in the Netherlands before the Patriots signed him in 1996. Many others received contracts or at least training camp invitations.

Mario Cristobal was not one of those players. Amsterdam was the last stop of his football playing career, Luginbill his last coach.

“(He) never ever did not give you great effort -- ever,” Luginbill said. “He loved the game so much, it was hard for him to give it up.”

In 1996, he played his last season before embarking on the same profession as Luginbill. He became a grad assistant at Miami, his alma mater, before serving as an assistant with Rutgers and the Hurricanes for three years each.

Finally, seven years after the turn of the century, Cristobal became Florida International’s second-ever head coach, inheriting a team that went winless the year prior. He started building, the program’s upward trajectory evident.

In the first season, he won one game. Then five. Then three. Then he took the Panthers to their first and second bowl games in program history. In 2012, though, with a banged up team, FIU won three games and Cristobal was fired.

Luginbill, then out of coaching and working in the private sector of football player evaluation watched from afar in disbelief.

“He has a losing season and they fire him. I mean, (that’s) totally nuts. Just crazy,” Luginbill said. “I respect the fact you never once heard him complain. It may have eaten him up inside but he went on and did his business.”

Watching the way he worked in Amsterdam, Luginbill said Cristobal “had coach written all over him.” He was “wired right for football,” was always focused, so concerned with excelling at his job.

As a player, however, more than anything, Luginbill said, he wanted to keep playing football. But there’s no market for a 6-foot-4, 280-pound offensive linemen in the NFL.

Back then, Luginbill was the coach at San Diego State. He even faced off against Cristobal’s Hurricanes as part of a home-and-home in 1989 and 1990. Forget that Cristobal won two national championships manning Miami’s front, the league didn’t want him.

“They're not going to play with that size human being in that league,” Luginbill explained. “With that, I kept track of him.”

Cristobal was hired by Nick Saban in 2013 to become the Crimson Tide’s offensive line coach. He held the position for three years and helped send nearly a half dozen linemen to the next level.

Three years later, he moved to the Pacific Northwest under the job title of Oregon’s co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. That offseason, coach Willie Taggart left for Florida State and left the head coaching position in Eugene vacant.

He became the interim head coach in early December. Oregon’s players, though, wanted the ‘interim” tag stripped -- so more so that more than 70 of them signed a petition to keep Cristobal as the Ducks’ coach. Their wish came true a few days later.

“It doesn’t surprise me because he is committed to them, and they know it.” Luginbill said. “He brings an intensity and a commitment that’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year -- I don’t have any idea when he sleeps.”

Sleep or not, Cristobal has been successful in Eugene. On Saturday, his 6th-ranked Ducks will travel to face Arizona State in Tempe to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. In the span of two years, he brought the Ducks back into the national title picture.

And why has he been so good?

“Everything in his mind has to do with winning, especially in recruiting,” Luginbill said. “He is the director of player personnel. Some of those other guys may have the title but everything revolves around recruiting. I respect that because, bottom line, that’s where the games are won.

“I just think he’s so committed to that side of it … He’s not going to leave a stone unturned and God bless him for it.”

Luginbill breaks down college football programs into three categories: rebuilding, redirecting and reloading. He believes the Sun Devils are currently rebuilding under coach Herm Edwards.

Oregon, he explained, was in a position of redirecting three years ago. Since then, under Cristobal, they’ve upgraded to the enviable spot of reloading.

And Cristobal understands how to reload -- he did it at Alabama, as an elite recruiter. At Oregon in 2019, Cristobal brought in the 7th-ranked class, highlighted by Kayvon Thibodeaux, the country’s best defensive end. His 2020 class, too, is already ranked No. 11.

Luginbill said and ASU respects what his former player has been able to build in such a short time. He’s happy for his success, to see Cristobal’s hard work pay off on a grandiose stage.

He just doesn’t want him to win on Saturday.