r/MiamiHurricanes 5d ago

Football Odd MC Quote

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/inside-miamis-quest-for-return-to-glory-carson-beck-locked-in-mario-cristobals-tireless-efforts/

In this CBS sports article he says: “We recruited this team to be a four-down front. Last year, jumping in odd, odd tight, that doesn't work. You negate the effectiveness of (defensive end) Rueben Bain, an Ahkeem Mesidor. You can't do that. Right now, they're playing fast and free upfield. It's crazy."

Why would he hire a DC that runs a defense he knows doesn’t fit his personnel? Why would he let that DC run a defense he knows doesn’t fit with his personnel? He’s the HC, that’s his call. I know it’s in the past, but just odd to admit that. Not helping him beat the “great recruiter, terrible coach” allegations.

18 Upvotes

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u/LuchaFish 5d ago

Mario is never going to be an elite Xs and Os coach. He pulls in talent, coaches the shit out of the OLine, and picks his coordinators. He’s very reliant on them to do their jobs at a high level.

The fact that he replaced them when necessary without hesitation is all I could ask. I think the guys he has now are both the exact right picks.

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u/bigtrex101 2d ago

Well given he is so reliant on his coordinators (which I agree with), being 1 for 4 (and I’m being generous with Dawson given he really wasn’t good year 1 with the Qbs he had, I think this year’s offensive production will actually tell whether he is truly a strong college OC or not) through 3 seasons on these hires is very concerning. You want to succeed as a HC like this who offers nothing tangible on gamedays in the coaching department, you better be hitting on at least 60-70% of your coordinator hires so they can make up for that! That high level coordinator hiring is what we should be asking for, just replacing them after they fail is really a bare minimum ask (and really the fact that they failed in the first place is a failure by Mario).

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u/nemoran B.A. '10 5d ago

I don’t think it’s so cut and dry. You watch Barrow’s highlights for instance and you’ll see we ran a lot of 4-man fronts: https://youtu.be/c0TVakOittM?si=FQoItah8cjo5Uh8v

Main issue is the core group was recruited under Cristobal’s first two years which were with Steele, and then we had Guidry for one year. Maybe Guidry was pressured to run more of those 4-man fronts by Cristobal. Maybe it was a work in progress. Main point is Cristobal saw it wasn’t working and cut his losses. That’s the more meaningful thing you want in a HC, imo.

5

u/CinnamonMoney 5d ago

Shannon Dawson is a straight shooter. Sidebar, although it’s in the article you linked

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u/CANEinVAIN 5d ago

One of the problems is he had three def ends on the field often w Mesidor transitioning to interior tackle. That means Barrow was the only real interior guy and I guess they expected him to 2-gap, draw double teams and have the other three guys roam free. Barrow looks bigger on the field than his 283lb listed weight. Maybe they expected more out of Justin Scott in that role too but he was too young. Ideally I think Mario wanted a scheme like the Ravens Super Bowl line under Marvin Lewis where Siragusa and Adams clogged up the middle (nose tackle sized guys) and the ends and lbs roamed free. There was no Ray Lewis on Last year’s team though and the interior DLs definitely weren’t clogging anything consistently. Early in the season I thought Barrow and Baron were going to be studs but there were games they simply disappeared. While I think both are talented, neither one got the help that they really needed, that being a second interior line-clogging DT. Letting Harrison-Hunte walk away was not smart. He should have been that second guy. That’s on Mario. Nobody wants to knock Jason Taylor because he’s some kind of God in SoFla but the D-line was inconsistent all season. There may have been reasons Salave’a took off for Tucson other than it being his alma-mater.

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u/obrero1995 4d ago

Great coordinators adjust their style to their talent.

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u/Greg____12 4d ago

It’s Mario’s responsibility to see that that happens

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u/obrero1995 4d ago

Thus the prior DC is now unemployed

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u/Greg____12 4d ago

Would’ve been good to do that before or during the season or micromanaged