I’ll apologize in advance for the length of this post. If you want to scroll to the bottom and read the TLDR version, be my guest. For the Cristobal Crusaders that will surely have their feathers ruffled by what’s just the flat-out truth (numbers never lie), fly away and seek shelter in the recruiting threads.
Ripping the bandaid right off, a sub .500 record through two seasons is unacceptable at the University of Miami…no matter who the coach is. I’m afraid a lot of you that err on the side of hope (not to be misconstrued with peacocking) continue to point towards the recruiting classes as evidence that if the roster is loaded, there’s no way Mario can ***** it up. But before we get into that by comparing him to a former Miami coach, let’s analyze the actual concrete results we as fans have had to endure these last two years. This includes:
- A blowout loss to Middle Tennessee St.
- One of the most boneheaded losses in college football history to Georgia Tech by refusing to take a knee
- Winless against Florida State and UNC
- First ever defeat to Rutgers
- 12-13 record overall
- 6-10 in conference play
- 7-8 at home
- 5-5 on the road
So that’s…not great. Really there’s no argument against it being utterly bewildering. We’ve seen his numbers compared to other coaches in Year 2, and he’s just ahead of Sunbelt Billy in terms of success from a win-loss perspective. But - let’s keep trudging along.
@Suhrthing made a great thread regarding recruiting not being enough to deem a coach as successful. Roster makeup and talent absolutely matters, but wins and losses matter 10x more. I urge many of you to look back on former Cane-turned rat Randy Shannon and his first two seasons at the University of Miami.
Shannon:
Yr 1: 5-7
Yr 2: 7-6 (6th loss came on 12/27/08 Emerald Bowl by 7 pts)
Cristobal:
Yr 1: 5-7
Yr 2: 7-6 (6th loss came on 12/28/23 Pinstripe Bowl by 7 pts)
Remember, Shannon was (and still is) heralded as an elite recruiter that would build a fence around South Florida and bring in elite talent. I mean he did bring in the number one class in 2008 and a top ten class in 2009. And yet, Shannon didn’t bring any advantage when it came to game days.
Which brings me to my next point. What disconsernible advantage does Mario bring other than in the high school talent acquisition department? On game days, he’s arguably a net negative. Is there anything positive that he brings regarding schematics, prepping, clock management, adjustments, key decision-making, etc?
I can’t even give him flowers for portal recruiting. What is the ratio of unquestioned, game-changing additions compared to flat-out Jags and/or non-impact players in two cycles?
I’ll give you Lee, Cohen, Kiko, Porter. Two are gone now.
I question a whooooole lot more than that. Seriously, who else made you go “wow, that dude is a game-changer. He’s one of our best players.”
The facts are the facts, and a lot of the angst towards people that question where this ship is going is predicated on a fear that this is the program’s last shot at relevancy. Mario is basically Ed Orgeron, except Orgeron sat in the corner on game day, acquired elite talent through recruiting + the portal, and hired an innovative OC (or OC’s if you want to play the two-headed game).
This portal cycle is going to be massive for this program. As much as we want to believe and rationalize our lack of success in 2022 and 2023, the fact is three consecutive underwhelming seasons at Miami got Manny fired and got people to turn on Golden and Shannon. Why would Mario be any different should this occur?
It’s not just me or CIS that realizes this. Mario is getting DRAGGED on social media. Feel free to search yourselves, but here’s a few examples that don’t even include the laughingstock he caused from the GT game.
YIKES.
That’s a pretty big account. Here’s #3
Blue bloods is a joke, but let’s not deny they have 17.5K followers that see this kind of propaganda.
I haven’t even gotten to the glaring holes in the roster that need to be addressed, and this is TWO YEARS into the regime.
TLDR: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. Something has to change on game day, or we will be having the same discussions next season. I don’t care how well you recruit, at some point you have to prove it on the field. These first two seasons were an unmitigated disaster, and Mario has to fix it asap.
