forums

Coaching You can’t defend Cristobal anymore

The investment in Cristobal is every bit as significant as what LSU put into Brian Kelly — arguably more when you factor in how aggressively Mario has attacked the portal year after year. LSU went “all-in” for one cycle. Cristobal has been operating at that level multiple seasons in a row.

So if we're being honest, the leash shouldn't be that much longer than what LSU just gave Kelly. Maybe Mario earns one more season than BK because he’s built more of the roster himself — but if results don’t change fast, it’s hard to see him getting more than one additional year beyond this one. The spending has already happened. The returns haven’t.
 
Advertisement
The fact that his OL continues to commit penalty after penalty is eye opening. He said they were simulating the snap. Teams have been doing that since our second game this year and we still haven't fixed it? With a veteran OL?

Absolutely no defending that timeout he took. Had plenty of time to call if if he wanted to see what formation they would come out in but waited until the last possible second. Just dumb.
 
TboneJones said:
The investment in Cristobal is every bit as significant as what LSU put into Brian Kelly — arguably more when you factor in how aggressively Mario has attacked the portal year after year. LSU went “all-in” for one cycle. Cristobal has been operating at that level multiple seasons in a row.

So if we're being honest, the leash shouldn't be that much longer than what LSU just gave Kelly. Maybe Mario earns one more season than BK because he’s built more of the roster himself — but if results don’t change fast, it’s hard to see him getting more than one additional year beyond this one. The spending has already happened. The returns haven’t.
Click to expand...
LSU’s wealthy guys are serious. The ****ed $50 million away and are willing to pay whatever it takes. Do you think we are similarly situated?
 
RVACane said:
Lashlee too. You’re preaching to the choir. It’s possible to hire a staff for less and do better in the win column. 💁🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Lashlee is a perfect example — you don’t need a $9M-a-year “name” to build a functional modern program. Smart hiring, clear offensive identity, and roster construction that matches your scheme go a long way.


In the NIL era, it’s less about who you hire and more about how you allocate resources across staff, development, NIL, and retention. You can pay a hungry, system-driven coach less, surround him with strong coordinators, and get better results than throwing everything at one guy and hoping his personality carries the day.


The model is changing. Miami needs to evolve with it. The buy-a-brand-name era is dying — the efficiency era is already here.
 
TboneJones said:
Absolutely. Lashlee is a perfect example — you don’t need a $9M-a-year “name” to build a functional modern program. Smart hiring, clear offensive identity, and roster construction that matches your scheme go a long way.


In the NIL era, it’s less about who you hire and more about how you allocate resources across staff, development, NIL, and retention. You can pay a hungry, system-driven coach less, surround him with strong coordinators, and get better results than throwing everything at one guy and hoping his personality carries the day.


The model is changing. Miami needs to evolve with it. The buy-a-brand-name era is dying — the efficiency era is already here.
Click to expand...
We need more than you think. The gator paid Napier $8m or so per year 4 years ago out of Louisiana Tech. There’s guys we can get for less than that. We’ll be taking a gamble but whatever. A good coach at one spot doesn’t always translate at the next spot. It did for Saban, it didn’t for Chip Kelly or Lincoln Riley.
 
RVACane said:
Lashlee too. You’re preaching to the choir. It’s possible to hire a staff for less and do better in the win column. 💁🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...
the guy that lost to wake last week?
i agree hes a good coach, but he isnt building the Miami program
 
Advertisement
RVACane said:
We need more than you think. The gator paid Napier $8m or so per year 4 years ago out of Louisiana Tech. There’s guys we can get for less than that. We’ll be taking a gamble but whatever. A good coach at one spot doesn’t always translate at the next spot. It did for Saban, it didn’t for Chip Kelly or Lincoln Riley.
Click to expand...

Fair points. No hire is ever risk-free — even the “proven” guys can flop in a new situation. That’s the nature of college football.

But that’s exactly why locking yourself into a massive, long-term deal before the results justify it is the old-era mistake. You used to overpay to land the name and hope he brought the whole machine with him. NIL flipped that dynamic — now you build the machine first.

What Miami needs isn’t just a cheaper coach — it’s a different strategy:
  • Identify a builder with a modern offensive/roster philosophy
  • Pay him well but not program-handcuffing money
  • Put the rest into elite coordinators, NIL retention, and roster depth
  • Create a sustainable development pipeline instead of chasing savior hires
You're completely right that fit matters. But “expensive” and “good fit” aren’t synonyms anymore. Saban thrived because Alabama invested in everything around him. Chip/Riley struggled because their programs didn’t evolve structurally with the sport.

The lesson isn’t “don’t spend.”
It’s spend smarter, not louder.

Miami should be shopping for the next rising architect of a program — not the next celebrity brand name or glory days alum hoping history repeats itself. The schools that get that are the ones winning now.
 
It's really tough to see how things get better than last year with Mario here. I see folks still saying, well, yeah he's never going to outcoach anyone, but we can regularly win 10 games and make the playoff every few years with him. I dunno, feel like you gotta make the playoff at least once (like Franklin at PSU) for this argument to hold water. Right now, I think it's more likely than not that last year will be the high water mark in his tenure here.

I like him and have defended him, but I also thought he needed to make the playoff this year or things could go downhill pretty quick. And then the team played a lot better than I thought they would, and now this. UL was a freakshow loss with Beck's INTs; this loss was brutal and ridiculous. We should have blown them out. We had a chance to win easily even after halftime. We even had a chance to win by 2 scores in the 4th quarter. Somehow we lost in OT.

Will say I wish he were more like Franklin than how he is. Not only cause that would mean we'd have made the playoff, but beating good teams early in the year again and again, then losing to ****heaps again and again later in the year is driving me nuts. So much worse than losing everytime you play a good team.
 
For Mario to be an avid BJJ guy, he sure lacks the humility you have on the mats.

The ability to adapt is extremely important in any leadership position.
 
flips said:
It's really tough to see how things get better than last year with Mario here. I see folks still saying, well, yeah he's never going to outcoach anyone, but we can regularly win 10 games and make the playoff every few years with him. I dunno, feel like you gotta make the playoff at least once (like Franklin at PSU) for this argument to hold water. Right now, I think it's more likely than not that last year will be the high water mark in his tenure here.

I like him and have defended him, but I also thought he needed to make the playoff this year or things could go downhill pretty quick. And then the team played a lot better than I thought they would, and now this. UL was a freakshow loss with Beck's INTs; this loss was brutal and ridiculous. We should have blown them out. We had a chance to win easily even after halftime. We even had a chance to win by 2 scores in the 4th quarter. Somehow we lost in OT.

Will say I wish he were more like Franklin than how he is. Not only cause that would mean we'd have made the playoff, but beating good teams early in the year again and again, then losing to ****heaps again and again later in the year is driving me nuts. So much worse than losing everytime you play a good team.
Click to expand...

I mentioned earlier in one of these threads today I see this team losing 2 more games. I doubt seriously this team wins 10 games this season. I believe 10 games with Cam Ward may be the outlier season for Miami under Cristobal.
 
mosthated305 said:
The fact that his OL continues to commit penalty after penalty is eye opening. He said they were simulating the snap. Teams have been doing that since our second game this year and we still haven't fixed it? With a veteran OL?

Absolutely no defending that timeout he took. Had plenty of time to call if if he wanted to see what formation they would come out in but waited until the last possible second. Just dumb.
Click to expand...
I mean, why not implement a hard count? Only your guys know when the ball fires off. I am literally an idiot at football and even I know this.

"Alright guys, it's gonna be 13 Blast. On three. Ready, BREAK"

"Set! Hut! Hut-hut! HUT!"

It should not be that hard to counter shifts and all that nonsense.
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
TboneJones said:
I mentioned earlier in one of these threads today I see this team losing 2 more games. I doubt seriously this team wins 10 games this season. I believe 10 games with Cam Ward may be the outlier season for Miami under Cristobal.
Click to expand...
Yes, I could see us losing to Pitt and either VT/NCST. I don't think this team is going to respond well to being out of playoff contention. Hope I'm wrong
 
Handsome Squidbum said:
Put Mendoza on this team and we make the playoffs even with the half-retarded coaching. Likely still lose a regular season game because Mario (probably this one because it was the classic Mario failure), but guarantee we beat Louisville a couple weeks ago.
Click to expand...
Yikes Mendoza will look retarded under this retarded CORCH’in Staph
 
Back
Top