Report: Mario Cristobal will reportedly be new Miami football coach, replacing Manny Diaz

Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal is reportedly leaving the program to be the new head coach at Miami where he was a player in 1989-1992 and later an assistant coach.

Mario Cristobal is returning to his alma mater to be the new head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, according to Michael Ryan Ruiz, executive producer of The LeBatard Show.

Additionally, Barry Jackson reports Miami is in the closing stages of negotiations that will pay Cristobal $8 million per year on a deal that will be longer than five years. He also reports Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich is expected to take the same job at Miami. Jackson says it’s not a done deal but both will be in Miami unless one gets cold feet.

There has been a lot of smoke around this story in the last few days while Cristobal prepared his Oregon team for the Pac-12 Championship Game. After getting blown out by Utah on Friday night, it looked like Cristobal was more concerned with his future than his present.

After the game, Cristobal was asked about the Miami rumors but wouldn’t address them. Cristobal only said Oregon was working on something for him, suggesting they were putting together a contract extension and raise for him and his agent to consider to keep him from leaving for Miami.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS, Cristobal is still weighing his options of signing an extension at Oregon.

Mario Cristobal reportedly will replace Manny Diaz as Miami football coach

Cristobal, 51, is a Miami alum, playing offensive tackle for the Hurricanes from 1989-1992 and later working as a grad assistant from 1998-2000 and later worked as tight ends coach from 2004-2005 and offensive line coach in 2006.

Cristobal left Miami after 2006 to be the head coach at FIU where he had a 27-47 record and made two bowl games at the new program. His firing was met with criticism from the media who believed Cristobal did a satisfactory job building the program from scratch and deserved a mulligan for the 3-9 season after winning 15 games the previous two seasons before his termination.

Cristobal resurfaced with a job on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama from 2013-2016 where he built a reputation for being one of the top recruiters in the nation. He parlayed that success into getting the Oregon co-oc job on Willie Taggart’s staff at Oregon before being promoted to the head job after Taggart left for Florida State.

His record at Oregon is 35-13 (23-10 in the Pac-12), won two Pac-12 North division titles, went 2-2 in bowl games, including a Rose Bowl win in 2019 with Justin Herbert that saw the Ducks finish the year ranked No. 5 in the Coaches and AP Poll.

With his recruiting background and familiarity with the Miami football program and university, Cristobal will be the latest coach tasked with bringing The U back to national prominence and competing for national titles.

Miami is coming off a 7-5 season and was 21-15 under Manny Diaz who is still the head coach at the time of the reports Cristobal will be the hew head coach. Certainly an awkward approach to fielding a coaching search, but this year’s coaching carousel has been an unprecedented one for the sport.

With the Oregon football job opening up, there is reportedly strong support for former Oregon head coach and current UCLA coach, Chip Kelly, being the top target.

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