Please help me understand - Mario Cristobal

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Mario getting the job would be the equivalent of self imposing additional sanctions.

Not even kidding, if he's the choice I'm done with this program. To make things worse there's a high probability he'd retain Coley as his OC...they are good friends.
 
Mario's "work" making headlines via Alabama media (check out the fan comments)

Why Alabama offensive line remains a question mark | AL.com

"Cristobal has a great reputation, but if the proof is in the pudding, I hope Miami takes him."

"the O Line is weak, and these are supposed to be 4 and 5 star guys. Cristobal may be a great recruiter, but we need someone to teach these guys how to block before Coker gets killed."

"The O-line has not been as good since Christobal got here that is obvious."

"line play has been worse since cristobal took over. very inconsistent. he can recruit. o line play not too good."

"The previous O-line coach who left for Philadelphia was a great coach who didnt want to recruit.... Cristobal is a great recruiter but is not a great coach. Kind of a catch-22."

"I agree on that but Bama will have to part ways with Mario this year if they want to get better on the offensive line in the future. It's hard to believe that with all the talent on the line that they are getting abused like they are unless it's poor coaching. I think they will move on from him unless he leaves on his own to be a coach. He is getting attention from FIU and they can have him."

"Yeah, they can find someone else to recruit south Florida. The cost is proving too high."

"Yea, I have known that for a long time. The ironic part is Cristobal was a lineman and a head coach. However, you are right on the money."

"I really think that since Mario Cristobal has become the offensive line coach Bama has had some issues with the line. Even though Bama had success last year, they still had a lot of line breakdowns. Besides having qb issues, I believe the line is not performing."

"If they were getting any kind of coaching that was good they wouldn't still be this bad. I really hope Saban shows Cristobal the door asap"

"I don't know about that but I fully support Mario for that Miami job! Immediately."
 
The bottom line is that dumb college football and Miami fans think all you need is a "recruiter" to win at Miami. Despite the fact that every coach who has won big here (not counting Coker) was a well-respected coach in other more important facets of the game.

Schnelly - NFL HC, Don Shula's OC
Jimmy Johnson - NFL HC
Butch Davis - Super Bowl winning DC
Dennis Erickson - NFL HC

We had four coaches in a row go to the NFL at one point. All of these guys were able to bring in great classes but none of these guys got hired to be NFL head coaches because of their ability to sit in a living room and convince a kid to come to Miami. They got hired to be NFL head coaches because they knew how to win football games.

A head coach's "recruiting" ability is pretty far down the list of things to consider. Recruiting success as a head coach is a function of a lot of things, but the most important of all of them is the ability to produce an exciting team that kids actually want to play for. We haven't had that in 12 years and a "recruiter" does not make that happen.
This. The idea that anyone can win at Miami is the biggest myth going with this program. We need a real coach just like any other program. Every time I hear someone say you can plug in any coach and win I cringe. It's simply not true and the last three coaches have proven that. We need someone that knows Xs and Os, how to run a program and identify talent or surround himself with people that have that ability. We need a real God **** coach not a recruiter.
 
Recruiting isnt that difficult... its more dependent on the team/situation. Mario coached here for awhile during the Shannon years, and we were lamenting recruiting then. Golden is a good recruiter, but we always missed the big guys.

A great program recruits itself. You win, well coached and you will recruit well

Lets get a guy who can run the program and win games. Not recruit
 
I'm asking that anyone in favor of Mario Cristobal to help me understand, in detail, how whatever perceived rewards from his hiring outweigh the potential risks.

Things I'd like to know:

What strengths did he exhibit as an FIU Head Coach?

How is he with situational football? How does he make decisions in-game, generally?

What's his history of hiring and firing?

What did he "learn" under Coach Saban?

How do Alabama fans feel about his actual football (not recruiting) contributions? What are the details in terms of productivity increase or decrease?

We can start there. We can then go on to compare him, as a risk, to alternatives. Hope to learn something.

My positives on Mario:
1) He did a decent job of bringing in rising young coaches, especially with regards to coordinators.
His first OC and DC were Coley and Galiano, respectively. Coley was there one year and his offense wasn't good.
But in fairness that was a transition year with a very bad team. His DC was Phil Galiano from Rutgers.
He sucked. After that he brought some pretty good coordinators from WVU (Bill Legg, who is now at Marshall),
Toledo (Satterfield, who is now the HC at Appalachian State) and from New Hampshire (Terry Cramsey, now
at Montana State). I thought those coordinators meshed well with the type of soFla talent he was recruiting.
On the DC side, he hired the LB coach from UCF, who eventually moved to MissSTate and is now the ghayturd's
DC, and he was followed by Todd Orlando, who is now the DC at UofHouston.
Again, good hires....and his other assistants of note who have done well is Alex Mirabal (OLine coach at Marshall)
and Frank Ponce (co-OC at Appy State).
2) Good recruiter....not much more to add to what has been already posted here and on other Cane boards.


Negatives:
Will all the good coaches he had in his staff, and with his recruiting ties to soFla, he really didn't dominate
the Sun Belt conference as one would expect. In fact, I think he got out-coached in some of the few games
I watched.

Overall: I would love him at UM, as an assistant coach. No way as HC.

Thanks, Medley. Besides likely bringing Mirabal as his OL coach and sticking with Coley (both are his friends), what would you expect him to bring in?
 
As someone who doesn't live in SoFla or read the Herald daily, I'm only generally aware of what happened at FIU, but national media sort of made it out to be Garcia's fault in a lot of ways. I don't like him as a hire because the resume's so thin, but it seem like folks hate the guy over there, so I'm hoping we see some posts with substance here to fill me in.
 
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I'm asking that anyone in favor of Mario Cristobal to help me understand, in detail, how whatever perceived rewards from his hiring outweigh the potential risks.

Things I'd like to know:

What strengths did he exhibit as an FIU Head Coach?

How is he with situational football? How does he make decisions in-game, generally?

What's his history of hiring and firing?

What did he "learn" under Coach Saban?

How do Alabama fans feel about his actual football (not recruiting) contributions? What are the details in terms of productivity increase or decrease?

We can start there. We can then go on to compare him, as a risk, to alternatives. Hope to learn something.

My positives on Mario:
1) He did a decent job of bringing in rising young coaches, especially with regards to coordinators.
His first OC and DC were Coley and Galiano, respectively. Coley was there one year and his offense wasn't good.
But in fairness that was a transition year with a very bad team. His DC was Phil Galiano from Rutgers.
He sucked. After that he brought some pretty good coordinators from WVU (Bill Legg, who is now at Marshall),
Toledo (Satterfield, who is now the HC at Appalachian State) and from New Hampshire (Terry Cramsey, now
at Montana State). I thought those coordinators meshed well with the type of soFla talent he was recruiting.
On the DC side, he hired the LB coach from UCF, who eventually moved to MissSTate and is now the ghayturd's
DC, and he was followed by Todd Orlando, who is now the DC at UofHouston.
Again, good hires....and his other assistants of note who have done well is Alex Mirabal (OLine coach at Marshall)
and Frank Ponce (co-OC at Appy State).
2) Good recruiter....not much more to add to what has been already posted here and on other Cane boards.


Negatives:
Will all the good coaches he had in his staff, and with his recruiting ties to soFla, he really didn't dominate
the Sun Belt conference as one would expect. In fact, I think he got out-coached in some of the few games
I watched.

Overall: I would love him at UM, as an assistant coach. No way as HC.

Thanks, Medley. Besides likely bringing Mirabal as his OL coach and sticking with Coley (both are his friends), what would you expect him to bring in?

It's a good question on the offensive side of the ball.
He ran spread-type of offenses at FIU under Satterfield and Cramsey.
As one of the fellow posters pointed out to me, Satterfield now runs more a run-based offense at AppyState.
I mention this because one of his Satterfield's co_OCs is Ponce. So who does he bring in to run offense
and if he keeps Coley does he bump him from OC duties?
I actually have a better comfort level on the defensive side of the ball, based on who he hired at FIU.
I think he would try for Todd Orlando or another rising DC candidate.
But he would worry me on the offensive side of the ball with all of his buddies.
We may have an offensive version of the Golden/D'Onofrio situation.
 
As someone who doesn't live in SoFla or read the Herald daily, I'm only generally aware of what happened at FIU, but national media sort of made it out to be Garcia's fault in a lot of ways. I don't like him as a hire because the resume's so thin, but it seem like folks hate the guy over there, so I'm hoping we see some posts with substance here to fill me in.

So far, none of his supporters have come up with any substantiative argument. Because, IMO there are nothing there other than his relationships with HS coaches and his ability to relate to recruits and connect with them. Like you said, his resume is thin. His win-loss record is unimpressive.

To me, hiring him will be as huge of a gamble as anybody with no real track record.
 
It's a good question on the offensive side of the ball.
He ran spread-type of offenses at FIU under Satterfield and Cramsey.
As one of the fellow posters pointed out to me, Satterfield now runs more a run-based offense at AppyState.
I mention this because one of his Satterfield's co_OCs is Ponce. So who does he bring in to run offense
and if he keeps Coley does he bump him from OC duties?
I actually have a better comfort level on the defensive side of the ball, based on who he hired at FIU.
I think he would try for Todd Orlando or another rising DC candidate.
But he would worry me on the offensive side of the ball with all of his buddies.
We may have an offensive version of the Golden/D'Onofrio situation.

A weirdly obsessive FIU fan claims that each of his OCs "performed better" when they left FIU. A separate FIU fan (yes, crazy, there's more than 1) claims his game management was infuriating. Straight up, I may have watched 3 total FIU games in his time there. I dont remember much.
 
Mario getting the job would be the equivalent of self imposing additional sanctions.

Not even kidding, if he's the choice I'm done with this program. To make things worse there's a high probability he'd retain Coley as his OC...they are good friends.

Not only retain Coley as oc but promote him to assistant hc
 
Not sure if Butch Davis has been mentioned as a much better option but I'll throw his name into the ring.
 
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Ok Lu, Mario has been rated a top 10 recruiter as an assistant by multiple sites. If I recall, and I will look for the links, he was 2014 recruiter of the year either in rivals or ESPN. He has always put together good staffs, found Todd Orlando who is now considered a solid DC in college. He has tons of relationships with coaches around the country, he is also highly respected by those coaches due to his humility as a HC. He doesn't micromanage positions, he is know for letting his coaches coach their positions and the coordinators call their own plays. I truly do not want Mario, but there are worse options, Schiano being one of those. I am all for a Tom Herman or a coordinator waiting for a shot like Kirby Smart. Everyone wants to criticize choices but if any of us truly knew something we would he coaching at that level or making those calls. I am not a GM or an AD, I recognize talent in my field and find ways to motivate them. Mario tends to find talent in the coaching ranks, and time will tell if he can build a real program. Whether we give him a shot or not, someone will this year or next. My bet is UCF will strongly consider him. His relationship with Mel Tucker and T Rob make for an interesting situation to add one or the other as a DC. The former has all the experience as the latter is just a super star recruiter and position coach, but I doubt both stay as DB coaches much longer.
 
Ok Lu, Mario has been rated a top 10 recruiter as an assistant by multiple sites. If I recall, and I will look for the links, he was 2014 recruiter of the year either in rivals or ESPN. He has always put together good staffs, found Todd Orlando who is now considered a solid DC in college. He has tons of relationships with coaches around the country, he is also highly respected by those coaches due to his humility as a HC. He doesn't micromanage positions, he is know for letting his coaches coach their positions and the coordinators call their own plays. I truly do not want Mario, but there are worse options, Schiano being one of those. I am all for a Tom Herman or a coordinator waiting for a shot like Kirby Smart. Everyone wants to criticize choices but if any of us truly knew something we would he coaching at that level or making those calls. I am not a GM or an AD, I recognize talent in my field and find ways to motivate them. Mario tends to find talent in the coaching ranks, and time will tell if he can build a real program. Whether we give him a shot or not, someone will this year or next. My bet is UCF will strongly consider him. His relationship with Mel Tucker and T Rob make for an interesting situation to add one or the other as a DC. The former has all the experience as the latter is just a super star recruiter and position coach, but I doubt both stay as DB coaches much longer.

Thank you for the insight. Any details on the bolded portions? One thing I continuously ask is "why aren't other big schools (any schools?) after him?
 
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