Next Miami Offensive Coordinator: Names to Consider
With Josh Gattis out and the offensive coordinator position now open at the University of Miami, it’s time to take a quick look at possible names that could become options for head coach Mario Cristobal.
This list should be considered preliminary; it will change. For that reason, this article will be updated moving forward.
Here are some of the initial names to consider, starting with three candidates that have ties to South Florida and/or Cristobal.
Prime Targets
James Coley - Texas A&M wide receiver coach and offensive coordinator
Coley and Cristobal overlapped their coaching careers in 2007 while both worked for Florida International. Coley was the Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, while Cristobal was the head coach. Both are from Miami, so there’s that connection of being South Florida guys as well.
From a fit standpoint, Coley has vast experience within the Sunshine State. He’s coached at Miami Senior High School and Miami Norland, plus he’s coached at FIU, at Miami from 2013-2015 as the offensive coordinator, and was at Florida State from 2008-20212, serving in roles such as tight ends coach, recruiting coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and offensive coordinator.
Plus, he’s also coached under Georgia head coach Kirby Smart during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Coley should be considered one of the better recruiters in college football. That always helps.
Marcus Arroyo - Recently removed from UNLV head coaching position
Was a part of Cristobal’s Oregon coaching staff (2017-2019). He served as the co-offensive coordinator and quarterback and tight ends coach during his first season in Eugene, then the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach in 2018, while he was the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2019.
He was 7-23 as the head coach of the UNLV Rebels from 2020 through 2022. It was a rebuilding job that was interrupted by COVID and that certainly hurt his efforts.
Arroyo coached and recruited in the Pac 12 for California (2011-2012) and Big 12 with Oklahoma State (2015-2016), so that overall experience certainly helps his case to be Miami’s next offensive coordinator.
Plus, those are prime areas for the Hurricanes to recruit (California and Texas in particular), and he's already familiar with many of the high school coaches he would be communicating with.
Joe Brady - Buffalo Bills Quarterback Coach
A South Florida native and Miami fan himself, Brady was the brains behind LSU’s 2019 passing attack that watched Joe Burrow throw 60 touchdown passes and win the Heisman Trophy. Yes, 60…
He is currently the Buffalo Bills quarterback coach, so leaving Josh Allen and the Bills could be quite difficult to overcome.
Brady has five years of NFL experience, the one year at LSU, plus he was a graduate assistant at Penn State in 2015 and 2016.
Maybe?
Tommy Rees - Notre Dame quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator
Depending on which person one speaks with, Rees was strongly considering making the move to Coral Gables before Gattis was hired. He is a former Notre Dame player (2010-2013), and has been on the Irish staff from 2017 until current day.
To date, he has mostly operated a downhill power run game for Notre Dame, similar to what Cristobal has shown to prefer throughout his coaching career. Rees has not had a high-level talent like Tyler Van Dyke, however.
Perhaps Rees wants to see something different after spending the past six seasons with the Irish.
Not Likely
Kliff Kingsbury - Former Arizona Cardinals and Texas Tech head coach
This might seem outside the box, and that's fine. There have been rumors that Kingsbury is interested in getting back to the college level, however.
There are not many jobs he’d have available as a head coach. So, perhaps, Kingsbury would consider coming to Miami for a while?
He’s a true Air Raid coach. Kingsbury likes to throw the football. It would be interesting to see what he could do with the level of skill talent Miami has been known to sign over the decades.
Dan Mullen - Former Mississippi State and Florida head coach
While this may seem incredibly unlikely, the college coaching business is quite hard to predict. Mullen can be a tremendous play caller, and maybe he wants back in the coaching game after working for ESPN as a studio analyst this past season.
He was the head coach for the Bulldogs from 2009-2017, and he served as the head man of the Gators from 2018-2021.
He’s also been a graduate assistant at Notre Dame in 1999 and 2000, was Urban Meyer’s quarterback coach at Bowling Green (2001-2002) and Utah (2003-2004), as well as serving as Meyer’s quarterback coach and offensive coordinator at Florida (2005-2008).
Under Mullen’s direction, quarterback Tim Tebow won the 2007 Heisman Trophy.
Note: This was just the beginning. There will be more names coming and going until Cristobal finally makes an offensive coordinator hire.
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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.