Home US SportsNCAAF Dave Hyde: Mario Cristobal has built Miami into a top program — now can he coach it?

Dave Hyde: Mario Cristobal has built Miami into a top program — now can he coach it?

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CORAL GABLES, Fla. — He can recruit. Another five-star talent signed as you read this sentence.

He can build. These University of Miami lines are massive, like the blueprint of college champions.

He can turn around a wavering program, having done so once at Oregon and now for a second time at the University of Miami.

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But on the edge of the most anticipated season in a couple of decades, as No. 6 Notre Dame awaits Sunday night in Hard Rock Stadium, the same, nagging question hangs around No. 10 Miami that was asked last year. And the year before. And Oregon before that.

Can Mario Cristobal coach?

Can he save a fourth quarter from failing?

Can he make the easy decision, as he didn’t in the Georgia Tech loss everyone wants to forget two years ago when he didn’t have his quarterback kneel down to win?

Can he steer a season from danger, as he couldn’t last season when Miami lost three of its final four games to lesser programs of Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Iowa State?

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Cristobal isn’t going to win big Jimmy Johnson’s way at Miami, even if he was recruited to the program then. Jimmy won with his big recruits and his bigger ideas about speed and motivation that change the way colleges played.

Cristobal is going to win big Butch Davis’s way, if he wins big. Out-recruiting everyone (with the help of Miami’s money now). Developing first-round NFL picks (offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa is rated the second pick and defensive end Rueben Bain the seventh in an early ESPN mock draft for 2026).

And, like Butch, Cristobal will try to just do enough in managing the clock or massaging a lead as to not be too much in the way. And that’s fine. That can get Miami back to its championship roots.

But Cristobal has to be better, right? He has progress like his roster has again this offseason. He has to not just reach the college football playoffs for the first time but make a run at a title.

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That’s a lot of demands. But at some point this New Miami has to get some appreciable payback for the manner it’s turned everything over to Cristobal.

Isn’t that time now?

“Mario’s created this program in his image from inside out,’’ Miami athletic director Dan Radekovich said. “Offensive and defensive lines. Those are the cornerstones of successful programs. It’s all coming together now.

“He knows there’s players now who play how he wants to play.”

Bullyball. That’s how Cristobal wants to play no matter how quarterback Cam Ward changed that last year. Bullyball is how this team is built to play starting with an offensive line that makes the former offensive tackles the strength of the program.

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Everything is there for him to succeed that way, too. Money given by boosters. Talent that Cristobal and that NIL money has recruited. The schedule is light in a way no one sees because of front-heavy opponents Notre Dame and Florida in the first month.

That start will test them. But they could lose once, as Notre Dame did to Northern Illinois last year, and still win the title. They could go 0-2 and still be fine in this modern world, too, if they take care of the ACC.

They don’t play ACC power Clemson, either. They don’t play another ranked preseason opponent after Florida for that matter. And while no one expects incoming quarterback Carson Beck to be No. 1 pick Cam Ward, don’t undersell him, either.

Beck was 24-3 at Georgia. Sure, it was powerhouse Georgia. But it was in the powerhouse SEC, too. Playing ACC defenses will be a different level once the schedule turns there.

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There’s a reason why Beck is the second-highest paid person in Miami’s athletic department at $4.5 million this year. Remember when Miami had no money? I do. I remember Randy Shannon showing me a list of ACC coaches’ salaries. His was 10th. Last.

Now Cristobal is the only one making more than Beck at $8 million a year. But this isn’t about money. If you want to contend for a national title, you have to spend the money.

Miami thinks it’s ready to contend. Its roster says it’s ready. The full allotment of 42,000 season tickets say expectations are to contend.

“Tremendous momentum and excitement,’’ Cristobal said Monday about this season.

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Why wouldn’t he feel that way? The coach has recruited and built the past three seasons to develop a formidable roster like this one. Johnson walked away after talking to the team recently, marveling about its size — “They look the part,’’ he said.

Starting Sunday, they’re asked to play the part.

And, just as importantly, coach it.

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