In a radio appearance discussing who the Miami Dolphins should select in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, NBC football analyst Chris Simms bashed Oregon head coach and Miami football alum Mario Cristobal’s offense.
Mario Cristobal was an offensive tackle in the Miami football program from 1988-92. Cristobal was first-team All-Big East in 1992 when the Hurricanes lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to decide the National Championship. Cristobal played for the Amsterdam Admirals of the World League of American Football in 1995 and ’96.
Led by Mario Cristobal, the Oregon Ducks had their best season since they won the Rose Bowl following the 2014 season under former head coach Mark Helfrich. The Ducks’ success in 2019, was in large part due to their offense led by QB Justin Herbert. NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms referred to the Oregon offense as “horrible.”
Cristobal began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Butch Davis at Miami from 1998-2000. He left Coral Gables to become the offensive tackle and tight ends coach at Rutgers in 2001. The Hurricanes throttled the Scarlet Knights in their championship season 61-0 in Cristobal’s return to the Orange Bowl.
Cristobal spent two more years at Rutgers before returning to the Miami football program for the 2004 season as the tight ends coach. He was the Hurricanes TEs coach for two seasons before taking over as the offensive line coach in 2006 under former national championship coach Larry Coker.
Cristobal left Miami to move crosstown and accept the head coaching job at Florida International in 2007. The Miami native spent six seasons with the Panthers compiling a 27-47 record. FIU played in two bowl games under Cristobal, winning the 2010 Little Ceasers Bowl following a 7-6 season.
The Panthers improved in 2011, finishing with 8-5 record that included a loss in the Beef O’Brady’s bowl. Cristobal was fired following a 3-9 season in 2012. He spent the next four years learning from the master, Nick Saban at Alabama. Cristobal was hired by Oregon to be the Co-Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2017.
When head coach Willie Taggart left Oregon after leading the Ducks to a 7-5 regular season, Cristobal was named his successor in December 2017. In their first game with Cristobal as head coach, Oregon lost the Las Vegas Bowl to Boise State. He tabbed his Co-Offensive Coordinator Marcus Arroyo to lead the Ducks offense.
Oregon coach Mario Cristobal on Justin Herbert’s legacy: “I mess with him all the time, I tell him it’s legendary. It’s hard to even script this kind of Hollywood story … he’s sitting here not only as Rose Bowl champion, but as MVP."
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) January 2, 2020
Cristobal is a popular name in the Miami Hurricanes universe as a potential head coach. After a frustrating 2019 season, a turbulent portion of the fanbase for the Miami football program wanted Manny Diaz fired and Cristobal to replace him. The source of frustration has been the Miami offense.
In a radio appearance, earlier this week as transcribed by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, NBC Sports football analyst Chris Simms bashed the offense run by Cristobal and Arroyo at Oregon. Arroyo has since been hired as head coach at UNLV. Arroyo will ironically replace new Miami OL coach Garin Justice who was the Rebels OC.
"“He played in a horrible offense in Oregon taught by an offensive line coach. Sorry, that usually doesn’t translate to knowing the passing game. Burrow got taught by a guy [Joe Brady] that got taught by Sean Payton. Herbert might have to be a year on the sideline behind Ryan Fitzpatrick.If you ask me who is the guy in this draft that maybe has a chance to be the next Patrick Mahomes, who in Year three of their career, you are going, ‘this guy is unbelievable,’ I think Herbert from what I’ve seen, has got superstar talent."
That superstar talent that the homegrown Eugene QB has led what was a good but not great Oregon offense. The Ducks were 39th in total offense, but a far more impressive 16th in scoring offense. The numbers for the Miami offense in 2019, well documented were far worse. The addition of Rhett Lashlee should help Miami.
Lashlee was hired this month by Diaz to replace the fired Dan Enos as the Hurricanes offensive coordinator. Under Lashlee, Southern Methodist finished seventh in scoring offense and ninth in total offense. The Hurricanes offense with Lashlee should be greatly improved. Simms describing the Oregon offense as horrible was misleading.