Do Not Rush: Hire the Right Coordinators
Mario Cristobal must now find two coordinators for the Miami Hurricanes, and he cannot just rush into decisions.
When Miami was dominant and consistently ranked in the top five of the national polls, one thing that the Miami administration did well was make excellent head coaching hires.
In fact, one of the greatest consecutive runs of top coaches happened at Miami. Four consecutive excellent head coaches: Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson, and Butch Davis were great at their jobs. They didn’t do it alone, however. They all hired excellent assistant coaching staffs, starting with the coordinators.
One can be assured they didn’t just rush into those hires either. They made mindful decisions; ones that took time. That point needed to be brought up again today as it relates to how many programs failed while in a similar situation to what Miami must go through now.
In today’s college football world, there’s often too much rushing because people in charge of college football programs have been so anxious to win. Then, poor and often hasty decisions were made about hiring coaches, and those decisions actually increased the problems. Miami cannot fall into this trap.
Let’s take a look at what’s happened with the Miami coordinator positions and go from there.
First, there was the removal of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis after a porous performance in 2022 (Miami was ranked 97th in scoring at 23.6 points per contest, just for starters). There’s been much discussion about the candidates for Miami, but there’s no hire as of yet. More on that in a moment.
Yesterday marked the coaching change of defensive coordinator Kevin Steele heading to Alabama to work with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. So, that made two open coordinator positions for Cristobal.
With spring practices quickly approaching, there’s a tug of war that Cristobal must work with.
First, time has already not been on his side. Having a plan ready to go, with the coordinators in sync, has always been a priority for Miami and each college football program heading into spring practices. That’s obviously in flux for the Canes based on recent events.
However, if Cristobal ends up missing on even one of these two hires, his own tenure could fall short of expectations. These two coaching hires are absolutely imperative for the future success of Cristobal and the Hurricanes.
As an example, and this is purely a guess, if there’s a defensive coach Cristobal wants from one of the two teams in this year’s Super Bowl – the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs – to interview, he’s going to have to wait until after the final game of the NFL season comes to an end. That often happens with college assistant coaching searches, so keep that in mind.
Additionally, when looking at the open offensive coordinator spot, Cristobal and The U could be competing with other schools for a top candidate. These decisions have been and continue to be life-changing events for assistant coaches and their families. It might take a little while to come to a final conclusion. That’s not been uncommon either.
Still, if the right person ends up leading the offense, even if that means it takes several more weeks, so be it. Miami would not be able to compete at the top of the college football world without a top offensive coordinator anyway.
That would be the same situation with the defensive coordinator.
As for Miami fans, that want answers and would love to find out the results sooner than later as well. To that point, one additional note that needs to be made.
Even if Cristobal had his decisions made already, and that’s obviously not likely with Steele leaving yesterday, there’s still administrative background checks. It can take two weeks or longer for those to take place. That’s been the world we lived in from recent years, and not likely to change much.
In the end, Miami’s coaching hires must be fantastic just like they were back in the days of Schnellenberger and former UM coaches. That might take a little while. That’s okay. Hire the right people and the Miami football program will have a chance to ascend towards the top of the college football world.
Failing with even one of these hires leads to continued mediocrity.
Cristobal cannot miss on either one of these hires, even if that means taking longer than anyone would honestly want. That’s the bottom line.
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Fan Nation High school football recruiting analyst covering the state of Florida, as well as across the Southeastern United States and the state of Texas.