I’m not going to call for Mario to go unless an epic collapse happens. We need to calibrate our thinking.
Positives Mario has dramatically increased the talent floor here. The S&C and development has upticked as well. Now these were very low bars to climb. But it’s still a drastic improvement from the last 20 years.
Gameday there’s obviously a ton left to be desired. But in the same vein, Mario was year too early with Cam and a year too late with the defense. Had the same level of urgency been placed on the defense two off seasons ago we might have more trophies sitting in display cases. That means imo Mario can win here. But it’ll have to fall into place. More likely we hover at 9-3, 10-2 and then have the 13-0 blip than do what Bama, OSU and UGA do.
We also gotta remember, three coaches in CFB currently have titles to their credit. That doesn’t give Mario leeway, it’s just incredibly difficult to win the whole thing. Does losing dumb games like last Friday suck? Absolutely. But ND lost to NIU last year and was a blown coverage away from possibly winning the whole thing. In today’s game, and with financial commitments the school has given Mario for players, resources and coaches, I legitimately think he can win. But it’s just going to have to land in place at the perfect time unfortunately.
