Paying newly-hired head coach Mario Cristobal a reported $8 million annual salary is only part of increasing the resources allotted to the Miami Hurricanes football program.
Consistently improving facilities, compensating a coaching staff at market value and adding staff members to the program when needed are also keys in a desire to pour in more resources to the program in an ever-evolving college football landscape.
Cristobal is well aware of the importance of distributing resources throughout the program and is confident UM’s administration understands it is more than just paying for a head coach.
“That was one of the critical pieces (of coming to Miami),” Cristobal said. “Football has changed so much and it continues to change. A lot of people refer to it as an arms race, but the investment and I think colleges and universities go the wrong way with things some times because they just collect talent or collect facilities as opposed to investing in people. There is a big difference. After having the opportunity to meet with these men you realize the massive investment in making sure these student-athletes have the best chance for success. It was a huge overriding factor for me.”
Gone are the days when Randy Shannon was only allowed a $500,000 budget for both coordinators as Cristobal’s hires are likely to more than double that amount.
Since Cristobal, 51, was last an assistant coach at Miami in 2006, aside from the brief six-week stint in the 2013 offseason, he has learned what it takes to have a successful program, first as a head coach at FIU (2007-12) and then as an assistant coach at Alabama (2013-16) before his second coaching role at Oregon (2017-20).
“I learned that when I had a chance to go away and work at some different spots. I got to see investments in sports psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning, player development, professional development, bringing in speakers, having people from the NFL visit, having other coaches come in and teach about their systems. It is something that should never, ever stop because if you want to keep growing, you have to keep investing. It was mind blowing [to see Miami make that investment] and I am really excited to dig into that.”
There have been people critical of the program’s apparent lack of desire to invest more into the program over the years, but when ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit questioned the school’s intentions in September, school president Julio Frenk took the words to heart and made changes, dismissing director of athletics Blake James and head coach Manny Diaz while hiring Cristobal.
“I joked with Kirk Herbstreit and told him that we need to get him on air more and get him to take a jab at our resources because you created something,” Cristobal said. “I want to express myself in the form of gratitude with that. I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude because when somebody has a vision and that vision that these men have put together is real and the backing to make it a reality, there is no stopping it. As long as you have the right people in place and they are energize to go to another level of working and intensity that others can’t fathom and that is what we want to bring to the table and combine it with that opportunity. I thank you guys because without that, it doesn’t work. What that is going to do is attract the highest level talent out there and also coaches and administrators. It builds upon itself with a lot of momentum.”
More resources into the program including Cristobal’s increase in salary as Miami’s highest-paid head coach ever will bring higher expectations.
“I say this because we talk about building a championship program, about taking things and elevating them to an elite level. It all starts with work,” Cristobal said. “As I look at some of these young men, and I look at some of the guys I coached and played with, I remember when they had to get an IV for going too hard on a two-a-day. When you had to go visit them at the hospital for an unforeseen injury. When you saw all the trials, the adversity they had to overcome to elevate the standard here at the University of Miami, you realize it’s about the work. It’s about the time invested because without that it’s not real and it’s time to go to work.
“We want to make sure the program here is always a program you can be proud of for all the right reasons. A program of relentless competitors. Always, always a team that nobody wants to play. That’s what you got to work to be because I can’t proclaim that. I can’t tweet that. We need to get together with these coaches and young men and we got to be that. We need to speak that into existence, we got to work that into reality.”
Miami is searching for its first conference title since 2003 when they were co-champions along with West Virginia in their final year in the Big East.
Since joining the ACC, six different schools have claimed a conference championship led by Clemson’s seven followed by Virginia Tech’s five and Florida State’s four. Wake Forest, Georgia Tech (later vacated) and Pittsburgh have also won a title while Miami has only appeared in one championship game in 2017.
Cristobal arrives after leading the Ducks to two Pac-12 championships (in 2019 and 2020) while playing for another in 2021 during his four full seasons in Eugene. He also won SEC titles in each of his final three seasons at Alabama giving him five conference championships in his last seven years as a coach. He has also been a part of three national championship teams—two as a player at Miami and one at Alabama.
He takes over a Miami team that finished second in the Coastal Division with a 7-5 regular-season record.
“We are the ‘U,’ we are Miami,” Cristobal said. “Every time you hear that, every time you see that in a commercial, on a shirt, at a game, that’s got to mean something and we got to show it in everything that we do.”
The Hurricanes close out the 2021 season by facing Washington State in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.
Christopher Stock has covered the Miami Hurricanes since 2003 and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and on Twitter @InsideTheU.
