As you can tell by my screen name, I’m not the biggest Mario fan by any means. But I’ll admit, the last 4 weeks was an excellent display of coaching, motivating, adjusting, and preparation. Some of the opponents weren’t great, but we dominated. This team and program folds it up after that SMU loss 100% of the time. We capped it off with an excellent win on the road in a game we lose 75% of the time.
Im not sure who’s idea it was or if there were handcuffs originally that got taken off, but the adjustments on offense were incredible. If we had this offense in SMU and Louisville, we boat race. It came a little too late but it was nice to see. Primarily the use of Toney, who we have for 2 more years, so safe to say we will see more of that.
And finding Hetherman and the job he’s done. Mario certainly gets credit. Couldn’t have made a better hire. We gotta do whatever it takes to keep him for at least one more year.
Assuming the playoffs and ACCCG aren’t in our cards… as a consultant, one of my biggest foundational advise is mapping and doing things in the correct order that they need done. Going to the playoffs and ACCCG would have been great, but logically, winning 10 games back to back years and winning a bowl game probably come first in that ladder. Then, build off that. Carry the lessons learned this year and last year into 2026 and I truly think we’ll there for both of those next steps.
