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X's and O's Who Ends Up With "Better" Run: Riley vs Cristobal

Empirical Cane

Empirical Cane

We are what we repeatedly do.
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While still very early in Riley's and Cristobal's run with their current teams, who do you guess will have "better" results by the time their turn in the seat is over?


A few weeks ago I was strongly leaning Cristobal. After his 4th and 17 Manuela moment against MTSU, the warning signs are flashing brightly on the dashboard. This season will likely be a complete trainwreck, so Mario's next gate to show the fans anything will be holding a respectable recruiting class together.

I get the vibe Riley is going to have medium-strong success then will be unable to resist the allure of some desperate NFL owner.


First season will go to Riley, but if Cristobal and somehow land a Top 25 class even with an 7-10 loss season, that moght be a good indicator long term. No matter his success, I don't see Cristobal as an NFL guy.
 
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The Trojans are ranked 100th in defense despite playing the likes of Rice, Stanford, Fresno State, Oregon State and Arizona State—and they don't face a ranked team the rest of the year. Only real challenge is a road trip to Utah in two weeks, which arguably decides the Pac-12 South.

Riley runs a great offense and will recruit well, which should be enough to get him through his division, but Utah and Oregon play defense in the North, so curious to see those match-ups.

You answered your own question, though—his tenure won't be long there as he's the prototypical offensive-minded guy the NFL has been snatching up, a la Kliff Kingsbury starting the trend years back.

Mario is in for the long haul at Miami and he'll be fine, barring he continues to evolve as a head coach. He'll recruit well, he has a budget and he'll have to keep tweaking assistants until finds the right-fit guys.

USC was in much better shape than Miami. Clay Helton grossly underachieved there, but the program never bottomed out long-term like Miami did for 16 years—and recruiting always rolled.

11-3 to win the Pac-12 in 2017 and 10-3 the year prior with a Rose Bowl win over Penn State. (Won the division 2020 with a 5-1 run during COVID, too.)

Miami entered the year 118-85 going back to the 2005 Peach Bowl—which averaged out to 7-5 per year over the past 16 seasons. Diaz just went 21-15 and the program was 28-24 since Richt's miracle 10-0 start in 2017.

Trojans don't face a ranked team this year at this rate (unless Utah and Notre Dame play their way back). Helton will probably wind up 10-2 with Utah winning the division—and he'll probably get that NFL call in 3-4 years, which he'd probably take.
 
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cenoc918 said:
Riley n I don't thank it's even close. Both play n weak conferences. Riley is capitalizing n Mario is not. Mario came n with the better team. Sorry folks his coaching ability is suspect so far.
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Mario came in with the better team? Riley brought quarterback Caleb Williams with him from OU and stole Jordan Addison—the Biletnikoff winner—from the Portal.

Might've helped the offense there just a smidge, no?
 
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Does Riley want to go to the NFL? He's already had offers I'm sure and is still plugging away in college. I don't think there's a better situation in the country when you get USC rolling. You're a star in the city of stars. The way they're paying college coaches, you can make as much money if not more there.

My answer to your question is obviously Riley. If we had an option to hire Riley or Mario, the overwhelming majority would've chosen Riley. That's no disrespect to Mario, but for where we recruit, he wouldn't miss a single offensive recruit. The days of our WR's heading elsewhere would be over the minute he stepped on campus.
 
cenoc918 said:
Riley n I don't thank it's even close. Both play n weak conferences. Riley is capitalizing n Mario is not. Mario came n with the better team. Sorry folks his coaching ability is suspect so far.
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According to who? USC had talent before Riley and added multiple elite guys through the portal. The only people that thought we were more talented are on this board.
 
cenoc918 said:
Riley n I don't thank it's even close. Both play n weak conferences. Riley is capitalizing n Mario is not. Mario came n with the better team. Sorry folks his coaching ability is suspect so far.
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Riley had the better team and added the starting QB from Oklahoma and the best WR in the country as transfers.

He's also in a recruiting hotbed with no competitors. He'll reach whatever his peak is quickly.
 
It's Mario

If he gets the S. FL kids to start believing in the home team again there would be no stopping him.
 
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Yoyo82 said:
Lincoln has an immediate schematic advantage and hit a few home runs in the portal.

Long term, I have more faith in Mario building a program that can sustain greatness.
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Agree 100% with your first sentence. Not sure about the 2nd, although I do believe Mario will take us out of mediocrity. Will we ever get back to the elite level with Mario? I don't know yet. I still need to see some more games, but that MTSU was a huge punch to the gut.
 
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Stats02 said:
Agree 100% with your first sentence. Not sure about the 2nd, although I do believe Mario will take us out of mediocrity. Will we ever get back to the elite level with Mario? I don't know yet. I still need to see some more games, but that MTSU was a huge punch to the gut.
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I hope Mario can.. I'm not saying he will but I think he is more committed to it and has the resume, experience, and resources to do it.

I don't think Riley has Mario's commitment/passion level nor his experience for program building. He has the resources obviously and a schematic advantage. I think the schematic advantage will lead to short term and immediate success but doesn't possess the same sustainability as the experience/passion/commitment Mario has for long term success.
 
Yoyo82 said:
I hope Mario can.. I'm not saying he will but I think he is more committed to it and has the resume, experience, and resources to do it.

I don't think Riley has Mario's commitment/passion level nor his experience for program building. He has the resources obviously and a schematic advantage. I think the schematic advantage will lead to short term and immediate success but doesn't possess the same sustainability as the experience/passion/commitment Mario has for long term success.
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I want to believe you about Mario having the passion and commitment for long term success. I didn't see that at all last game. He looked like a deer in headlights...to MTSU!!! I'm not going to make all my opinions about a coach based off of one game, but man that was ugly.
 
Stats02 said:
I want to believe you about Mario having the passion and commitment for long term success. I didn't see that at all last game. He looked like a deer in headlights...to MTSU!!! I'm not going to make all my opinions about a coach based off of one game, but man that was ugly.
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I don't think anybody can argue Mario's passion/commitment..that man won't sleep and eat just to make sure we win here. He's relentless and he bleeds and breathes Miami football. You could argue he wants us to succeed more than anybody else in the world and that's not just because it's his job.
 
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