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What's his deal? How was he at Auburn?

He’s a journeyman that recruits well and coaches well; from what I’ve heard. Not sure how he recently did at Auburn.

Worked under DJ Durkin, Kevin Steele; coached in the NFL for the Saints for a few years. Main recruiter on Laquan Treadwell at Ole Miss. Worked under James Franklin for a year at Vanderbilt.

I know for a fact that he loves UMiami and has wanted to be back here for a long time.

Auburn’s best cornerback transferred to Ole Miss, Jay Crawford. He worked with Zac Etheridge for a year at Auburn.

 

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He’s a journeyman that recruits well and coaches well; from what I’ve heard. Not sure how he recently did at Auburn.

Worked under DJ Durkin, Kevin Steele; coached in the NFL for the Saints for a few years. Main recruiter on Laquan Treadwell at Ole Miss. Worked under James Franklin for a year at Vanderbilt.

I know for a fact that he loves UMiami and has wanted to be back here for a long time.

Auburn’s best cornerback transferred to Ole Miss, Jay Crawford. He worked with Zac Etheridge for a year at Auburn.

He's definitely a journeyman coach by the very definition of the word. As you noted, shared DB duties with Etheredge, also with Bryan Brown at Louisville (he's now at Ole Miss). He has had three different stints at Auburn and reportedly has a son who lives there selling real estate. Perhaps Crime Dawg will rent his place out to DVD. Lol. Anyways, I can think of worse candidates.

 

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Thought this was a fascinating aside from Mario. It’s interesting from many angles, however, what struck me was the mention of recruiter of the year.

“….every single identification is absolutely critical. Having coaches that can project; having people that are really committed to — the recruiting part is easy — identification: the digging deep and the finding out what’s really underneath the hood? What are you getting and does it really fit?”

Because let’s call it what it is: this is a fast-moving industry. Coaches that are changing jobs year to year and you gotta be on guard against that. talk about it all the time: you don’t want a position coach tryna have 4 or 5 four star guys by their name, just say they are recruiter of the year; when they know they (the recruits) really aren’t that as players and as people. So yeah, we’re taking deep, deep dives. You see what we do: we bring em to practice. If they can handle that part, that up close and personal & shadow these guys (current players)….”

It’s part of the systematic approach that has Mario hesitant to make the easy internal promotion just to get it over & done with.

Our 2025 class has already exceeded the wildest expectations. It was ranked fourteenth and is the second worst finish not just the in Mario’s Miami tenure; it was the second-worst ranked class in his whole non-FIU head coaching career.

Miami took six more players (21) than the worst ranked class in Mario’s tenure; which was the transition class which had only fifteen guys.

2018: 13th at Oregon; was hired on December 8th, 2017 as HC after joining the staff as co-OC/OL/AHC in January of 2017. This same cycle, Miami finished with the 8th best recruiting class.

Do i even need to go beyond Penei Sewell and Jevon Holland to reiterate that their 13th ranked class was better than our 8th ranked class?

2019: Mario’s first full class in the big leagues. Oregon finished with the 7th ranked class. Mark Richt retired on December 30th, 2018. Manny Diaz was hired a few days later. Miami finished with the 27th ranked class.

2020: Oregon finished 13th; Miami 16th.

2021 Oregon finished 6th; Miami 11th

Mario is hired in December of 2021.

2022: 16th @ Miami; 12th @ Oregon (would have been top 5, likely top 3, if Mario stayed)
2023: 7th
2024: 4th (Mario’s highest ever)
2025: 14th
2026: 9th

To be in a position now to reject commitments of highly ranked safeties like KJ Caldwell is blissful from a fan’s POV. Gotta feeling this hire will be a home run given the patience with which Mario is approaching making sure the quality of the hire is met.