I get that the guy is super conservative with zero feel for the game but no this isn't his offense because he doesn't know offense well enough and there's no way Gattis came here to be his puppet. The only hope here long term is that those in power convince Mario that it's in our best interest for him to be a CEO type that let's his coordinators do all the heavy lifting, scheming, game planning and play calling. Then Mario can concentrate on what he is good at like recruiting, being the face of the program etc....
Also while we're being real, the OC he brings in should very preferably have head coaching experience for reasons that should be apparent and that I'm not getting into right now. Mario most definitely has the skills to be a program builder CEO type and maybe those skills would serve him much better in a different job capacity. This should have a thread of its own but skrew it. Let's say we move Cristobal into Highsmiths's job in a few years. In the meantime Cristobal continues to recruit like there is no tomorrow as HC in order to beef the rooster up as much as possible before handing the HC job to someone who has spent a few years as Associate Head Coach/Offense here under Mario. The whole head coach in waiting thing like FSU did with Jimbo. In this hypothetical scenario, Gattis is gone at the end of the year and the OC who replaces him would be the HCIW so he would be hired knowing that this individual would be our HC in 3-4 years. Who could possibly fill that role? Who would be the ideal candidates for that type of situation. It would have to be someone who is an HC now and someone would be so interested in the UM job that he would be willing to be an OC for 3 years before taking over. It also has to be an HC who is an offensive guru. Rip me all you want but Mike Leach would be an ideal candidate. I could also see Sonny Dykes and Hugh Freeze on that list as well.
LOL hey look, I get how crazy the above might be but I'm just sitting here thinking aloud. I'm as disappointed and as angry about the current state of the team. There was and will continue to be an immense amount of money invested in this program and these early results are anything but encouraging. Mario and staff are absolutely deserving of their share of criticism but....... It's still year one under a guy who we all knew was a program builder and absolutely not an X's and O's savant who is able to accentuate strengths while mitigating weaknesses during the rebuilding stage. Mario has made several mistakes so far but I have to be willing to give the guy the same amount of time I gave Diaz or Golden and that is 3 years. If after 3 seasons it's obvious that Mario isn't going to get it done then the above scenario could be a good way of moving on.