Mario Cristobal is the fourth-best head coach in the ACC by Jesse Simonton in an article posted on Tuesday morning titled “2023 ACC head coach rankings: Who should be ranked No. 2 behind Clemson’s Dabo Swinney?” Dave Clawson of Wake Forest was ranked second and Mike Norvell of Florida State was third.
The ACC dissolved the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions following the 2022 season. Clemson, Florida State and Wake Forest were all in the Atlantic Division. Cristobal has had an interesting career path. After being an assistant at Miami and Rutgers, Mario Cristobal first became a head coach at Florida International in 2007.
In six seasons at FIU Cristobal led the Panthers to a 27–47 overall record and 20–26 in Conference USA. After getting fired at FIU, Cristobal joined the staff at Alabama to learn from Nick Saban before leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Oregon in 2017 and the Ducks head coach in 2018.
The Miami football program will attempt to amend a 5-7 2022 inaugural season under Cristobal. The Hurricanes lost 20 players to the transfer portal, signed 25 in their 2023 class and added eight transfers. The most significant transfers Miami added are center Matt Lee and guard Javion Cohen to a rebuilt offensive line.
Where does Mario Cristobal rank right now among ACC Coaches? Pretty high https://t.co/eIXMgoFdjl pic.twitter.com/ksBRNC8cEe
— CaneSport Miami Hurricanes (@CaneSport) April 3, 2023
"4. Mario Cristobal, Miami – “Mario Cristobal was the single most difficult coach in the ACC to rank.He’s well-regarded enough to net a near $100 million contract and is one of the sport’s best individual recruiters (the Canes signed the nation’s No. 6 recruiting class in 2023 and brought in several potential impact transfers, too), and yet he also has five losing seasons as a head coach — including last season’s debacle 5-7 debut at his alma mater.I’m not going to hang any struggles at FIU on Cristobal, though. He walked into a super hard situation there and still produced a couple of winning seasons. His Oregon resume of 35-13 is difficult to gauge, though, as some Ducks fans believed he underachieved requisite to the team’s talent, while others point to two Pac-12 titles.Overall, 2023 is a big year for Cristobal. He’s completely overhauled his Year 1 staff, and after not hiring the right assistants last offseason, he better have avoided the same mistake twice.”"
Cristobal signed a reported eight-year $80 million contract with the Miami football program when he was hired as head coach in December 2021. Following his last three seasons at Oregon, Cristobal helped develop a first-round pick. The lack of development has been a big issue for the Miami football program.
Expect offensive line play to improve significantly under Cristobal and OL Alex Mirabal. The OL should be the most improved unit for Miami in 2023. In addition to Cohen and Lee, Miami signed five-star offensive tackles Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola. Mauigoa and Okunlola are expected to compete as starters in 2023.