Mario Cristobal offers no discernable advantage

RiDLer80

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I know a majority of this board has an unhealthy obsession with bringing alumni home to save the program, but Mario is not what we need. He offers no tangible advantage for this program.

I hear everybody say, he'll fix the OL like he's the only person in the country that can recruit good o-linemen. The truth is, people say that about him because that's all he truly brings to the table. He has no system that

Fans will also talk about his recruiting. It's true; he's killing it right now, but we've seen time and time again that you need more than good players to win games. We've seen watched Miami for over a decade continually lose to lesser talented teams because of coaching ineptitude. Talent only gets you so far. L to Stanford this year, L's to Oregon State and Cal last year. Also, lets face it, he's taking advantage of an extremely down conference right now--USC, UCLA and Washington are all shells of themselves and he's feasting on the west coast. That wouldn't happen recruiting the southeast. He'd have to go up against Bama, UGA, Clemson, Ohio State etc. for recruits.

How about discipline? A hard-nosed guy like Mario must have a disciplined team. Nope. Oregon's currently sitting at 114th in the country in penalty yards per game--exactly one spot in front of your Miami Hurricanes.

How about offense? Mario has to have great offenses, right? Him being an offensive guy and all. 32nd ranked offense in the nation. For reference Miami is ranked 28th. His offense isn't bad, but it's consistently been underwhelming. The narrative regarding Justin Herbert and his time at Oregon was that the offense failed him. He was used incorrectly and it failed to showcase his talents. Mario has no offensive system so he'd need to make the correct hire there. We'd also have to hope he doesn't hamstring that OC either by playing a conservative style of football.

Mario would need the perfect OC and DC hires to succeed because he offers no schematic advantage on either side of the ball. He's your classic CEO type head coach. Think about all the top coaches in the country right now. All of them have a calling card on one side of the ball or the other. Saban on D, Kirby on D, Day on offense, Riley on offense, Gundy on offense etc. I could go on and on. Mario is not guru on either side of the ball which means he'd need big money coordinators to succeed here, and that scares me. That's why I'm all in on guys like Lane Kiffin or Hugh Freeze. At least you know with them one side of the ball will be taken care of.
 
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you make good points. My criticism of Mario has always been that he needs to surround himself with a good OC and a good DC. Hes also a former OL and those guys tend to want to build physical teams. He’s a recruiting monster and knows how to build teams. He’s also shown he can hire pretty decent coordinators. He hired Collins and satterwhite at FIU and Moorhead is a solid OC. I think Mario can hire a very good staff and while he may not knock out of the park his coordinator hires, I don’t think he’d mess it up - he’s shown he knows how to hire.

Good point about penalties and I’m not so sure what to make of that. But, that same thing gives me pause on Kiffin - his defenses are bad and his teams are often the most penalized out there. There’s no perfect candidate but Mario is a pretty **** good one.

Edit: just looked up ole miss and they are almost dead last in penalties lol. And fwiw, I’m a fan of his
 
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I know a majority of this board has an unhealthy obsession with bringing alumni home to save the program, but Mario is not what we need. He offers no tangible advantage for this program.
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He's not my first choice, but he's a safe choice. God knows I'm one of the toughest to please when it comes to hirings but for his shortcomings, he would most definitely give us a discernable advantage in recruiting. Like, a nasty recruiting advantage we haven't seen since the days of Butch.

He's extremely presentable and parents love him. He wins in the living room consistently. I have my reservations about him but compared to the last 5 hires....he'd be Bill F'ing Walsh by comparison.

I'm completely on board with Kiffin as well. Both make a ton of sense.
 
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you make good points. My criticism of Mario has always been that he needs to surround himself with a good OC and a good DC. Hes also a former OL and those guys tend to want to build physical teams. He’s a recruiting monster and knows how to build teams. He’s also shown he can hire pretty decent coordinators. He hired Collins and satterwhite at FIU and Moorhead is a solid OC. I think Mario can hire a very good staff and while he may not knock out of the park his coordinator hires, I don’t think he’d mess it up - he’s shown he knows how to hire.

Good point about penalties and I’m not so sure what to make of that. But, that same thing gives me pause on Kiffin - his defenses are bad and his teams are often the most penalized out there. There’s no perfect candidate but Mario is a pretty **** good one.
Lane Kiffin has also seemed to build a very nice staff at Ole Miss with Lebby and Durkin. The thing is, he doesn't need to hit on both coordinators to be successful with him being an actual offensive guy.

Also, a quick not here re: building a physical team. Ole Miss is 3rd in the nation in rush yards per game in the SEC. Oregon is ranked 10th in the country.

That's not a knock on Oregon, just pointing out that Kiffin's offense is better at Mario's calling card (line play) in the SEC than Mario's team in the Pac 12.
 
I'm just mostly concerned about this "elite recruiter" stuff I keep hearing around here about him.

the dude was at BAMA and now OREGON, I mean you gotta be a dan mullen personality to mess up recruiting at those places. What's he gonna do when the entire company of nike isn't backing him? Don't even get me started on bama, they might as well have no rules in place whatsoever.

Mark Richt was seen as an elite recruiter, we found out that had much more to do with UGA and their bag game than richt once he arrived did we not?

I'm concerned, that's all.
 
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Lane Kiffin has also seemed to build a very nice staff at Ole Miss with Lebby and Durkin. The thing is, he doesn't need to hit on both coordinators to be successful with him being an actual offensive guy.

Also, a quick not here re: building a physical team. Ole Miss is 3rd in the nation in rush yards per game in the SEC. Oregon is ranked 10th in the country.

That's not a knock on Oregon, just pointing out that Kiffin's offense is better at Mario's calling card (line play) in the SEC than Mario's team in the Pac 12.

Yeah, I’ve talked about durkin before and how he was a solid hire - still don’t get why they’re so bad on defense. Ole miss also has an excellent qB who is a dynamic runner. That helps. Meanwhile, Mario has a Malik rosier like guy at qB
 
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I'm just mostly concerned about this "elite recruiter" stuff I keep hearing around here about him.

the dude was at BAMA and now OREGON, I mean you gotta be a dan mullen personality to mess up recruiting at those places. What's he gonna do when the entire company of nike isn't backing him? Don't even get me started on bama, they might as well have no rules in place whatsoever.

Mark Richt was seen as an elite recruiter, we found out that had much more to do with UGA and their bag game than richt once he arrived did we not?

I'm concerned, that's all.

In all honesty, the biggest negative that keeps popping in my head with Mario is Justin F'ing Herbert.

I mean, NOW everyone loves Herbert. God knows that in the days leading up to the NFL draft, EVERYONE was questioning how good he was. Then he gets to the NFL and balls out and you're left wondering....what the **** was Mario and staff doing to NOT extract that talent and maximize it.

That Oregon team had what has turned out to be a franchise NFL QB and a VERY GOOD offensive line. It's fair to ask questions about Mario not extracting maximum output from great players.

BUT.....at least he GETS those great players. He would kill it down here in recruiting. He'd represent a SIGNIFICANTLY better HC than anything we've had here since Butch. He's actually pretty **** similar to young Butch if you really break it down. Neither one is/was a gameday savant.
 
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I'm just mostly concerned about this "elite recruiter" stuff I keep hearing around here about him.

the dude was at BAMA and now OREGON, I mean you gotta be a dan mullen personality to mess up recruiting at those places. What's he gonna do when the entire company of nike isn't backing him? Don't even get me started on bama, they might as well have no rules in place whatsoever.

Mark Richt was seen as an elite recruiter, we found out that had much more to do with UGA and their bag game than richt once he arrived did we not?

I'm concerned, that's all.
Mario would still bring in top 10-12 recruiting classes every year. My thing with him is gameday coaching. We've seen coach after coach lose 2-3 games a year against far less talented teams. He'd be a better hire than any of our previous hires because I think he'd be the most consistent recruiter we've had since Butch. I just think he's limited when it comes to X's and O's which would put a ceiling on the program.
 
What's he gonna do when the entire company of nike isn't backing him?

I keep seeing this, but Oregon never had a top 10 class ever in history before Mario got there. That Nike money that so many on here claim can buy the world has been there for decades. He is on the verge of his 3rd top 10 class in 5 cycles when they never had 1 prior to him according to the 247 rankings. Why is that? If the Nike money is the end all be all and the only reason he is doing so well? Why couldn’t others do what he is doing? I know what the rebuttal will be, and I agree with much of what the OP said and have stated several times that the man isn’t perfect, but I don’t question his recruiting at all. JMO
 
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