This is the problem with the Lane cultists, same as the Mike Leach cultists that preceded them. Lane Kiffin is what he is, and all it is a more exciting version of Mario, just without any of the upside. Lane's teams have historically been terrible defensively, he also doesn't recruit nearly as well as other coaches. Never mind the fact that his personality wouldn't fly in a hostile media environment, as we saw at USC. You can't be an arrogant nepotism baby, have a ceiling of 8-5 to possibly 10-2, and not have the Miami media and fanbase come after you. People get enamored with flash, forgetting that championship programs are rarely built on that. You can't have your HC spending time on Tinder, trying to bang coeds, when dudes like Kirby Smart and Nick Saban are putting in 15 hour days, and their analysts haven't seen their families in weeks.
Would I have taken Lane before Mario? Yes, in fact I was one of the people on this board that said that short term, Lane was the better pick, but long term, Mario would likely be a better choice, because his ability to recruit and build a program means that even if he was terrible on gameday(WHICH HE IS), odds are you would have the talent to succeed despite that. College football is a talent acquisition game, more so than the pros. Keep in mind, Miami has multiple case studies of coaches that weren't great on gameday winning CHAMPIONSHIPS here, mostly because of their ability to get talent in, or in the case of Larry Coker, not get in the way of developed talent. Miami went with the higher ceiling guy, and embraced a full rebuild of the program, compared to the quick fix, but long term problems persist solution. I'm not going to lie, what I saw in person yesterday was a Miami program that has improved mightily from last year, but there's work to be done.
Honestly, I believe that had Mario been DECISIVE and gone with Emory two weeks ago, he would have been able to pull this thing off. Emory is raw, but the tools between the ears are there, and the team responded to him. Fix those mechanics, and as the game slows down for him, he'll put it together. He isn't a Day 1 draft pick, but he can be a **** good collegiate QB and that's all this team needs. I wanted this team to be in the fight late, and they did that. We'd all be fine with the loss, had Mario not botched the GT and NCSU games, and Miami took care of business. 8-2 with a close road loss to a likely CFP team doesn't bother anyone as much as 6-4 with multiple dumbass coaching errors.
