With how they recently revamped their program. All the big money programs spent on coaches and the movement in CFB at the end of 2021 with LSU, Miami, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, etc. USC is the biggest winner and I expect them to be competing for Championships in the very near future. It makes me wonder, why couldn’t Miami do their rebuild like USC?
Let’s recap a little here. USC was a putrid 4-8 in 2021. They somehow lure Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma, a dude who took the Sooners to several CFP games while coaching multiple Heisman trophy winners during his time in Norman (Miami hasn’t had anyone sniff a Heisman in 20 years). Riley takes Caleb Williams with him and gets him a Heisman and USC a game away from the CFP in year one. Also worth mentioning USC is leaving the PAC-12 for the BIG, which will ultimately benefit the program long term. USC is doing what you need to do to actually compete for championships and restoring your program back to relevancy. USC is “back to work”.
Miami decides to throw cash at Mario Cristobal because he was doing above average at Oregon and he used to play here. Apparently he’s also some recruiting genius. Most people probably don’t even know Cristobal was rumored to be a candidate for the job in 2015 after Golden was canned, but I don’t think he was even granted an interview. While I understand he had some success at Oregon and I’m not trying to take away what he accomplished there, Oregon was pretty darn good before Mario ever got there (National Title Runner Up in 2010, 2014), and they didn’t take much of a step back without Mario in 2022. Oregon has been a strong program over the last 15 years. I don’t really give Mario credit for building anything there. None of his teams actually made the CFP or came close anyways. His most impressive win was beating Ohio State in the Shoe back in 2021. It was followed up with an embarrassing loss to 4-8 Stanford a couple weeks later.
My first HC choice back in 2021 was Lane Kiffin and believe we should have tried harder to get him. He’s a brilliant offensive mind and he would have helped TVD flourish, not regress with the ancient Mario/Gattis offense that focuses on time of possession rather than scoring points. Mario has a transfer portal and a billionaire buddy who can pay any player what they want, so the “not enough talent” argument isn’t going to be strong in 2023. I see people predicting a 7-8 win season for us in 2023 which is ludicrous considering how much money we’re giving Mario. I guess I just don’t understand why everybody thinks the world of this guy, or how he’s worth what we’re paying him. I wish we went the USC route and hired someone who actually knows how to get the most out of their players instead of someone living in 1993 with their “power spread” Lol.
