Cristobal

[PimpCane]

Are we certain Mario forced Dawson to go conservative and it wasn't Dawson's choice? Genuinely asking

 

[TitansHope]

The anti-Mario crowd can't answer one simple question: who out there is better, now that Nick Saban has retired? I mean, show me the guy who is the total package. Recruiter, developer, gameday wizard, who never has close games, even against top 10 teams. Who is that guy?

the only reasonable answer is kirby smart and he's got the entire UGA monster behind him. i *might* say dan lanning (ironically enough) but again, the oregon machine was in a much better state than what mario walked into at UM- partially because of mario himself. the reality is we're not gonna do a whole lot better than mario.

 

[TitansHope]

Are we certain Mario forced Dawson to go conservative and it wasn't Dawson's choice? Genuinely asking

no, we're not certain at all, and in fact dawson said in his press conference today that he might take a call or two back but overall he specifically erred on the side of running last night because the ND secondary was so good. people just love to decide that everything good that happens on offense is dawson and everything bad is mario lol.

the one criticism that i personally believe is both legitimate and at least partially attributable to mario is our lack of diversity in the run game, since we know mario and mirabal have had heavy influence in design there. but everything i've seen indicates dawson has plenty of autonomy on gameday. i mean, look how aggressive we were last year.

 

[Stats02]

I’m not anti-Mario, also not a Mario slurper. I would like to think I’m an objective realist like the majority of posters on here. It’s ok to give him praise and credit when due, and also give criticism when justified.

That being said, we aren’t beating that ND team week 1 with Randy, Golden, or Diaz at the helm.

 

[TaylorWalls]

Kirby

So tell me how this board would react if Mario beat Kentucky 13-12, gave up 31 to Mississippi State, put up 10 against Ole Miss......

 

[joeB954]

Love what Mario has done but man his in game coaching and conservative tendencies when the game gets tight is maddening

It will cost us a game or two that it shouldn’t

Last night we mostly dominated. Should’ve been a 35-14 or 28-14 type of win

Trust the defense and start stepping on throats when teams are down. They don’t even have to take big chances. Just don’t run up the middle every single 3rd down. When they are stacking the box.

 

[ben]

Here’s what I’ll say about Mario- he won a conference title at FIU and finished Top 5 at Oregon.

The ability to install a winning culture in different situations is the truest sign of a real coach.

I like Mario, and he’s a good coach in a lot of ways. But “winning culture” is sort of over the top. He had two decent seasons at FIU, and a success level at Oregon slightly below that of Lanning and Kelly.

 

[Cajuncane]

My curiosity with Mario will be with the offseason when we find out if we have a QBon the roster in Luke with Dereon coming in or if the QB shuffle in looking to the portal every year is going to be the way.

I hope at some point we can depend on having a qualified QB on the roster with another solid one ready to be next up in 2 years.

Either way I trust in Mario to make the right decision but with the portal looming guys like a Luke or Dereon probably aren’t going to hang around for 3-4years to find out.

 

[NosniknoT]

Dont get me wrong I am happy with win last night and he has won some games, however he also has lost games he has no business losing and that is the biggest problem. Stop losing to teams you shouldn't and there would be alot less anti Mario people. I would much rather lose to the big boy teams then teams like mid Tennessee st, Duke, Georgia tech, NC state, Rutgers, Syracuse, Iowa st. Not to mention the number of games that were wins that should not have been close or the numerous dumb decisions during games that could and have cost them games.

 

[DC3]

people can knock Mario all they want but does anyone on here realize next year's insane schedule?

AT South Carolina
AT Clemson
AT UNC (would imagine bill will have them strong in year 2)
AT Notre Dame

I bet you guys will be happy that we have Mario and his talent building in those games

USCe wins 9 games at the most this year, if Sellers bounces will be worse next year but again not SEC contenders even with him.
Bill is washed and his GF is runing things at UNC.
Clemson will be breaking in a new QB and Dline
ND will be tough

 

[brcane1]

He has built a tuff and fyzikal team too. It's awesome.

I make fun of the caveman as much as anyone but wouldn't trade it for any viable replacement option certainly. I would do shameful things for these tench bullies.

What makes me believe in the guy is that he does adapt, even if slowly.

This crayon brain was the first one to actual bring an air raid passing attack even if he bastardizes it with bunches, splits and A/B gap frenzy. It works, better than what came before.

Even our bad time outs yesterday were better, even arguably smart.

He changes things when they're broken. He admits when things are wrong, when he is wrong.

We bleed Orange and Green. Go Canes. 16-0.

 

[The Sphinx]

Half? 85% of the 2022 roster was not d1 caliber. Manny was here 7 years and destroyed that roster and culture.

This! You beat me to it. Manny’s talent was sooo spotty and inconsistent. He’d get good DEs but then have **** LBs. Good RBs but then undersized, weak OL.

And then more so than the talent disparity, his team culture was ****.

We actually look like a Top 10 team in terms of size and physicality. I no longer fear Wisconsin, Clemson, LSU or Bama rag-dolling us. Now they may win, but they won’t beat us up like $2 hookers.

 

[SinisterCane]

The time management with one minute to go before the half was legendary Mario

 

[The Sphinx]

I’m not anti-Mario, also not a Mario slurper. I would like to think I’m an objective realist like the majority of posters on here. It’s ok to give him praise and credit when due, and also give criticism when justified.

That being said, we aren’t beating that ND team week 1 with Randy, Golden, or Diaz at the helm.

Agreed. That ND team came in with one mission - to beat the **** out of us and embarrass us in front of our Hard Rock crowd. Trust and believe.

A Randy squad would have fought hard but beaten themselves with INTs and turnovers. A Golden squad would have gotten beat up - Center forced into a Prince split. A Diaz team would have quit by the end of the 1st Quarter when they got punched in the mouth.

You needed Mario toughness to beat this ND team.

 

[9oh4Cane]

Put some respect on his name.

 

[brcane1]

Agreed. That ND team came in with one mission - to beat the **** out of us and embarrass us in front of our Hard Rock crowd. Trust and believe.

A Randy squad would have fought hard but beaten themselves with INTs and turnovers. A Golden squad would have gotten beat up - Center forced into a Prince split. A Diaz team would have quit by the end of the 1st Quarter when they got punched in the mouth.

You needed Mario toughness to beat this ND team.

TUFF AND FYZICAL

 

[Stats02]

Agreed. That ND team came in with one mission - to beat the **** out of us and embarrass us in front of our Hard Rock crowd. Trust and believe.

A Randy squad would have fought hard but beaten themselves with INTs and turnovers. A Golden squad would have gotten beat up - Center forced into a Prince split. A Diaz team would have quit by the end of the 1st Quarter when they got punched in the mouth.

You needed Mario toughness to beat this ND team.

I feel like we had a chance to put the game away and couldn't. We let them back in the game and have a shot to win. Something Mario still hasn't quite overcome against average/good teams. Then again, Shannon, Golden, and Manny would have never been up by two scores against them.

 

[S.CarolinaCane]

I am by no means a Cristobal slurper. He can be a maddening gameday coach. He goes hyper conservative at the most inopportune times and often can't grasp the basic fundamentals of clock management, occasionally resulting in disaster. In so many ways, reminiscent of Butch Davis.

But the way he completely changed the talent level and trajectory of the program is undeniable and fairly remarkable. For all that he lacks in gameday acumen he adjusted to the NIL/portal era as well if not the best of any major college coach. He's a relentless recruiter. And man does he bleed orange and green. He will make this program a champion or die trying.

You could argue Randy Shannon did too but his ego and bluster came first. He didn't understand the necessity of forming relationships and being a salesman. He was "my way or the highway" to a ridiculous point. He was also an awful gameday coach. Al Golden was frankly all about Al Golden, and didn't even bother trying to make the adjustment to South Florida recruiting or major conference ball. Richt had some juice going but age and health caught up with him. Manny was in over his head.

Now ideally you want a coach who's a program builder, recruiter, and a brilliant gameday mind. But those guys don't grow on trees. I'm old enough to remember lots of guys here sweating the likes of Tom Herman, Napier, Norvell, Sumlin, et al. Would you rather have any of those guys now? There's no a guarantee a guy like Petersen or Whittingham would have success here, and they know that as well. As they haven't shown any interested in heading east.

The most important part of building a program is recruiting and infrastructure, and Mario is killing it. I think that's a fair trade off from the infuriating gameday stuff. It's not ideal but it is that it is. Again I'll mention Butch. He built the program to the point a figurehead was able to take the helm and dominate college football for the better part of the next 3 years (before completely destroying it of course).

Point is, Mario turned this thing around pretty **** **** quickly. Middle Tennessee seems like a lifetime ago (although I remember it like it was yesterday). Think about the roster back then. At least half those guys wouldn't be in the 2 deep today. It's been a pretty remarkable turnaround and more importantly it looks sustainable. Recruiting is very good and young guys are stepping up. And we know we can dominate the portal. It's Mario or bust.

The only thing that I might disagree with is that Al.Golden was able to identify some talent is some places on the roster.

But that guy was definitely dealt a very ****** hand during his tenure at Miami.

 

[gabednconfused]

Saban coaching tree current P4 head coaches:

• Kirby Smart (Georgia) – Former DC at Alabama.
• Steve Sarkisian (Texas) – Former OC at Alabama.
• Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) – Former OC at Alabama.
• Billy Napier (Florida) – Former assistant/analyst at Alabama.
• Mike Locksley (Maryland) – Former OC at Alabama.
• Mario Cristobal (Miami) – Former OL coach/recruiting coordinator at Alabama

Carson said something early in fall camp saying the practice intensity and process matched other top teams (obviously referencing UGA).

I found the indy time for the lines and LBs/TEs was very intense when I saw a spring practice first hand. They are effectively trading conditioning for 1v1/2v2 game like work at 80-90% exertion level.

There is some science to this, and it seems to have originated from Bama, if not some other SEC team where the tree is linked.

All these coaches do that big guy>>little guy recruiting that Mario attributes to Saban, which combined with specialized practice methods, seems to be the standard blueprint. It is interesting when players come in and say something like this looks familiar etc...

This isn't like a sure-fire way to become a dynasty, but it seems to be some of the core underpinnings we need to get in the convo.

 

[Southtampacane]

Are we certain Mario forced Dawson to go conservative and it wasn't Dawson's choice? Genuinely asking

Head Coach can have the OC change things if he doesn't like the way things are going. So odds are it was Mario dictating to Dawson from the git go.