Nothing to say at this point.
Only way Diaz was gone in-season was if he lost to NC State and Pittsburgh and Miami fell to 2-6 on the year. Once he won three in a row, it was a end-of-season firing, at best.
James being gone two days after the Florida State loss was a power move to get ahead of the AD search.
In a dream scenario, Diaz is fired Sunday morning after the Canes go to 7-5 and beat Duke—and there's a Monday morning announcement that Tom Jurich is the new athletic director.
Should that happen, things will start falling into place quick enough.
Pac-12 title game is Saturday December 3rd—which Oregon is in, unless Oregon State upsets them this weekend. If Mario is the guy, would assume things fall into place early December as the Ducks are 100% out of the Playoffs race with two losses. Could still win conference and go to a good bowl, but that's not enough to keep Cristobal in the mix there—it was Playoffs-or-bust just like Diaz was in a Coastal-or-bust scenario.
Godforbid Jurich gets on board and Highsmith is brought in—can't see any way Cristobal turns that down to stay in Eugene, as the natives there are already restless and frustrated he hasn't won it all yet.