I recorded a long podcast, released it Friday, became uncomfortable with some of the details revealed and deleted it. But since most of the info was kosher, figured I would update it and post the thrust of it here.
First, a timeline. Manny and Blake were cooked with the important people after Michigan State. The bye week only added to the wave of anger. Then, Kirk Herbstreit made his comments about the administration. This led directly to Frenk putting out his statement before the Virginia game. The writing was on the wall for Blake at this point.
It is important to understand the players here. Frenk knows what he doesn't know, so he appointed two trusted people to act on his behalf with the football nitty-gritty: Joe Echevarria (CEO of UHealth) and Rudy Fernandez (Chief of Staff to the President).
The two are considered excellent complements of each other. Echevarria is a Bronx Puerto Rican who grew up with a single mom and rose all the way to CEO of Deloitte. He is also the CEO of Obama's My Brother's Keeper Alliance. Fernandez is a Cuban, Miami-born Harvard grad who worked in the George W. Bush White House. He is very in tune with governmental relations, while Echevarria is a business guy. Rudy is a diehard Canes fan- he follows CanesInSight on Twitter and frequently retweets or likes recruiting minutia. These are the point men from the University side and they are very involved.
The next set of players are financial backers. Some of these individuals are also very tied into the university. The main name here is Jose Mas. We've talked about the Mas brothers, but Jose (CEO of MasTec) is the lead here. The Mas brothers are owners of Inter Miami CF (the local MLS team) and taking an increased role in sports. They are also Columbus grads.
The newer player is John Ruiz. He is a Miami lawyer who helped develop a system of recovering government payments that should have been paid by insurance. If his SPAC deal goes through, he is in line to be worth over $20 billion and become the richest man in Florida. You can read more about it
here. His son played baseball for Miami and he is interested in sports ownership with his newfound wealth. Ruiz is related to Cristobal through marriage.
A famous name is Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World and star of CNBC reality show "The Profit." Lemonis has been active with the program in recent months. You can see him on Twitter liking numerous posts critical of the Athletic Department and program. Lemonis is a Columbus grad.
Two more names are Carol Soffer and Dan Lambert. The Soffer family is worth billions and developed Aventura, Florida. She is a hardcore UM sports fan who is seen regularly at all athletics events. The IPF is named after her. Lambert made money on cruises and has gained some fame as owner of the American Top Team gym and a manager on All Elite Wrestling. He put together the $500/month NIL deal ($540K total) for every player on the team. He also started a marketing company called "Bring Back the U" with the goal of bringing donors together to use the NIL program to benefit student-athletes. This ran into hurdles with the problems on the field.
Soffer and Lambert speak frequently and were both incensed at the 2019 debacle, including the FIU loss. They were driving forces in promoting Alonzo Highsmith for an advisory role to Manny. That fell through in spectacular fashion, even as I was told by sources with direct knowledge that it was a done deal. That 2019 fiasco soured many key people on Blake and Manny. Highsmith briefly spoke to Oregon about a job after that, but those discussions fizzled out.
So now to the coaching search. It's not hard to see the connections here. Mas and Lemonis went to Columbus, as did Cristobal. Ruiz is related to Cristobal through marriage. Highsmith went to Columbus. Cristobal is the top target.
Based on everything I've been told, money is not an issue. You can't put that message out and then get outbid by Oregon. It would set back the perception of our program worse than it was before. Cristobal has a side deal with Knight (seven-figures) but has to pay onerous state income taxes in Oregon. I expect us to match Oregon's financial commitment and force Cristobal to say no.
I'm told that the biggest factor in Oregon's favor is that he wants to coach his recruits. Cristobal believes he can win a championship there. However, speaking personally as a Cuban with deep Oregon ties, the cultural pull to Miami will be strong. And there are major issues with the Oregon QB room. There is buzz that the receivers have no faith in the people passing the ball. Miami offers a much deeper QB room that will allow for immediate success.
My educated guess is that he will pick Miami, all else being equal. The biggest hurdle was the playoff push, and that's over. Here is something worth noting: on late Thursday night, there was a Canes Twitter Spaces (basically a live podcast stream) with guys like Manny Navarro discussing the program. One notable name joined the call before getting spotted: Oregon OL coach and Columbus grad Alex Mirabal.
On the Lane side, I am told by sources connected to Ole Miss that Lane wants the Miami job. Ole Miss is one of the most senior-heavy teams in the country and Matt Corral is leaving. I don't have confirmation on our interest but have heard his name mentioned enough to believe it is real. Florida is the other team to watch but they may be zeroing in on Napier. There was initially some LSU buzz with Lane, but that has faded considerably.
There is a ton of misinformation being thrown out on the AD search. I've heard three different names in two days from credible people. Here is what I know for sure: CIS was the
first to report on the same day UM fired Blake that Tom Jurich had considerable interest in the job. That hasn't changed. He lives in Tampa and has been in communication with key decisionmakers identified above. There is considerable support for him as a candidate. The big hurdle, obviously, is his departure from Louisville and claims that he was insubordinate by refusing to fire Pitino. As a pure AD candidate, he is perfect.
I would expect Alonzo to have a role, if not AD. He was spotted speaking at length with Echevarria at the Georgia Tech game.
One last thing to clear up. I've posted a lot about Mario, so people assume I am a Mario-or-bust guy. The truth is I want a proven P5 head coach. That's why I didn't push for Mario or Manny in 2018. Now that we are in 2021, both Mario and Lane meet that criteria. I lean Mario because of sustainability and high floor, but both guys would be incredibly exciting hires.
This search reminds me of 2015. Stu Miller (billionaire chairman of Lennar) was so disgusted by the Clemson massacre that he took control of the operation and demanded a proven, P5 head coach. They ended up paying big for Richt. The timing of that was off, but they were focused on the right things and our results were the best in 15 years. I think this search will be similar with a rising (instead of a fading) candidate.
As an aside, the reporting on this one has been unusually accurate. Mike Ryan Ruiz is a friend and I know he is providing legit info. I don't know David Lake but his source is accurate as well. We know what the plan is. Now it's just about executing.
