Mario Cristobal is the coach at Miami that Dan Lanning wishes he could be at Oregon

The Miami Hurricanes are definitely going to move up at least one spot in the AP Top 25 poll, but as long as they just keep winning, Mario Cristobal is happy.

Miami's slow climb to the top of the polls will begin after Oregon's 39-31 loss to Oklahoma State. Yes, the same Oklahoma State program that the Ducks beat 69-3 last year. If there was any question about how much college football can change from year-to-year, this is it. The Cowboys sent long-time coach Mike Gundy packing after a 1-11 season and brought in Eric Morris, who took most of last year's North Texas program with him. 

None of that means a hill of beans for the Hurricanes, who will happily benefit from the Ducks' inability to start the season with any sort of consistency. It also further proves Cristobal's belief that each game is a season on its own.

Oregon's stumble is the reason why Mario Cristobal doesn't look ahead

While the NIL, transfer portal and LSU's desire to play NFL guys have certainly changed the way college football players are viewed by the fans, the fact is, they remain very young adults that can often let emotions carry over from week-to-week. Last week, Oregon struggled to put away a Boise State team that's probably going to be pretty good. The Ducks won, but they had to deal with questions about their worthiness as CFP favorites.

That pressure clearly carried over into this week for the Ducks, who looked tight and, at times, appeared to get caught up in a need to impress pollsters instead of trying to win a road game. It shows that Lanning is basically a bootleg knock off of Cristobal. Oregon fans swear the Ducks upgraded, but the facts are telling us a lot different and recruits are beginning to notice. Lanning has a lot of fire and that's fine. But he lacks the composure and his teams do as well.

Cristobal often says that football is not a beauty contest and when young players get caught up trying to look a certain way and it doesn't work out, it leads to mistakes and frustration and losses. There is truly no such thing as "ugly" wins. No game is perfect. No team is perfect. Even in a blowout win against Florida A&M, I guarantee Cristobal and the coaching staff will find at least a dozen things the Hurricanes can do better. 

Too often, coaches change things about their process after a disappointing week. They might have additional practices with pads or make unnecessary changes to the schedule. That doesn't happen with Cristobal's teams. Whether it's FIU, Oregon or Miami, the coach has always kept things consistent. He runs his practices a certain way, and he runs his in-season schedule a certain way. Does it guarantee wins every week? No it doesn't. There isn't anything a coach can do to guarantee a win, 

But changing your process based on trying to win the beauty contest? That can guarantee some ugly losses. Like the kind that Lanning and Ducks had in Week 2. 

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