National CFB analyst preaches patience with Mario Cristobal rebuild

Adam Gorney the Rivals.com National Recruiting Director wrote on Tuesday to be patient with Mario Cristobal and that the Miami football roster is “a rebuild that will take time.” Mario Cristobal has been lauded throughout his career as an elite recruiter. Miami is on the verge of signing its second straight top-10 recruiting class.

Miami currently has the 18th recruiting class nationally according to Rivals. After making over half the Miami football staff during the offseason, the Hurricanes 2024 class has been surging over the last few weeks. How well Miami performs during the 2023 season will likely impact where the 2024 class finishes.

In addition to seven new coaches, Miami signed 25 freshmen, one junior college transfer and 15 FBS transfers for the 2023 season. That is nearly half the roster turned over for the 2023 season. Miami will be reliant on several newcomers to be key contributors during the 2023 season.

Gorney primarily focuses on where Miami is in recruiting with “Looking at the second-year coaches in the Power Five” in his weekly column. A total of 12 Power Five coaches are entering their second seasons with their new programs in 2023. The 2024 Miami recruiting class ranks sixth among those 12 programs.

"Mario Cristobal – Miami“When Cristobal was hired away from Oregon to come back and revitalize The U, there was this sense in South Florida that maybe it would happen immediately. But the roster really wasn’t that good and there were embarrassing losses to Middle Tennessee State, Duke, Clemson and Pitt.Cristobal can recruit. He had Miami as the top-ranked ACC class in his first recruiting cycle. The 2024 cycle is strong as well with five-star Joshisa Trader recently committing. But this is a rebuild that will take time. In Year 2, Cristobal has two new coordinators as well.There’s so much talent down there that competency alone should bring that program back to life and Cristobal certainly has that, but the Hurricanes have also only won double-digit games once in the last 19 seasons.”"

The 2024 Miami recruiting class currently sits behind programs with coaches in their second seasons at Florida with the third-ranked class, Notre Dame fifth, Oregon sixth, LSU 15th and USC 16th. Miami is competing with several of those programs for recruits. Some of the new coaches have already made an impact in recruiting.

The commitment from Trader and four-star Chance Robinson was attributable to new WR coach Kevin Beard. New running backs coach Tim Harris Jr. was able to help Miami receive a commitment from four-star prospect Kevin Riley from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Miami is competing for top prospects under Cristobal.

LSU, Oklahoma and USC who all finished directly ahead of Miami in the 2023 rankings were the only programs that signed higher-ranked classes than the Hurricanes under a coach entering their second season this fall. Miami has to avoid the embarrassing losses they had last season to keep the recruiting momentum.