I'm going to qualify my criticism to an extent. Sounds like he gave AG a heads up. If this was Mario just taking an interview because it bolsters his 'rep' and maybe helps him seem sought after so he's in the mix for future high profile openings, and he doesn't intend to take it, and AG is okay with him doing it, then it's a meh to me. The key is whether AG supported him taking the interview for real (not just on the surface).
However, anyone saying this is 'professional courtesy' to Saban is a moran. You don't owe someone an interview. You can politely decline.
I seriously doubt that Al is good with this act of treason unless he's a total schmoe.
You may be right, but it depends on what their discussion was. I'm having a hard time seeing how Mario taking this interview isn't an insane decision unless he basically told Al hey, I'm going to go meet him, but am not going to take the position seriously, and Al believed him.
Mario making this lateral move at this time shows himself to be a total prick and burns bridges in Miami, which he presumably doesn't want to do, and would know.
Mario taking the interview under circumstances where Al is anything less than comfortable with him doing it, then _not_ taking the Saban job shows himself to be an idiot as he's going to have burnt himself in Al's eyes (who could trust him at that point?). And he should know that.
So my scenarios are Mario's a scumbag, Mario's an idiot, or Al gave him his blessing.
I prefer to think he's not an idiot. So if as expected he doesn't take the job ... well, maybe it just wasn't that big a deal.
Not sure the job was offered to him. But his silence after the interview is deafening. If he truly wasn't serious about taking the job, then he would have shut it down very quickly after the interview.
I'm pretty sure Fredo's a total scumbag (especially in light of all of his dalliances while at fiu and his sudden firing, which isn't probably as one-sidedly dumb as originally thought), and I'm equally pretty sure that Al isn't a schmoe and really has no interest in having the Associate HC that he just hired a month ago run off to suck Saban's dyck. The only thing that comes from that publicly is that Alabama is the better program, and it's so much better that the Associate HC, who is a UM alum and was just hired a month ago, is interviewing there for a lateral move. It's a big deal because it puts UM in a far inferior light publicly.
I can't say you're wrong, just trying to make sense of this.
If Mario doesn't take the Alabama job, he's basically torched as an assistant at UM before he even begins as an assistant at UM. That's weird, ****ed up, and pathetic. Al will think he's a prick. He'll be out recruiting half heartedly, and he'll be gone before next December.
I'm just trying to give the ****wad the benefit of the doubt, I guess. Because if he doesn't deserve it, this is truly lame. The guy's supposed to be all about Miami. His wife is some hottie with seven boyfriends within two blocks of the Hecht Center, and moving her would upset her delicate state of mind. He's got two houses here, just so he doesn't have to sleep in the same house as her when she's with a boyfriend. He's very much a local guy. And he played here, and supposedly has aspirations of longer-term options at the U.
Against all that, this trip to Tuscaloosa makes no sense, unless, as I said, it was okay with Al. Doesn't mean it was. Just means Mario's an idiot if it wasn't (in addition to a prick).
. He just spurned his alma mater before LOI day to come home to Miami.