The University of Miami and Mario Cristobal have agreed on a deal that will make Cristobal the new head coach. The deal is 10 years, worth $80 million.
With the move, current tenured head coach Manny Diaz has been fired. Rumored AD Dan Radakovich is expected to come along to Miami (it hasn’t been official yet).
Mario Cristobal originally graduated from Christopher Columbus High School as the class of 1988. From 1988-92, he was a four-year letterman at the University of Miami, playing on legendary Hall of Fame head coach-led teams with the likes of Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson. He won two National Championships (1989, 1991), and in 1992, he earned First-Team All-Big East Conference awards as an offensive tackle. He would play professional for the Denver Broncos and the Amsterdam Admirals ending his professional career in 1996.
He would start his coaching career with Butch Davis, being a GA from 1998-2000. He would move to Rutgers with Greg Schiano from 2001-03 as the TE/OL coach. He would come back to Miami with Larry Coker to take the same position from 2004-06. On December 19, 2006, Cristobal was named the second head coach in FIU’s history. At 36 years old, he became the first Cuban-American head coach in Division I-A. He would take a winless team to a Sun Belt Championship in four years, and two straight bowl games. He would be let go after the 2012 season, going 27-47 (20-26 overall in the Sun Belt). He would then go to Nick Saban and Alabama from 2013-16, where he was the Associate Head Coach, OL coach, and the recruiting coordinator. He would then go to Oregon to coach under Willie Taggart in 2017, which eventually he would take over as the head coach after Taggart went to FSU. At Oregon, he made them a PAC-12 power, overall going 35-13 and 23-10 in the PAC-12.
(Featured image by Serena Morones for The Oregonian/OregonLive)