The Hurricanes look to return to college football relevance behind Mario Cristobal, who helped lead The U to two national titles as a player, RossDellenger writes
Sometimes, late at night, when Mario Cristobal is leaving the Miami football complex, he drives toward Kindred Hospital, a long-term acute-care center. Before arriving, he often realizes his mistake and wheels around toward his family’s home near campus.
“She went knowing that he was home,” says Luis Cristobal Jr., Mario’s older brother. “She got to know that. She was happy.”Alexander Aguiar/Sports Illustrated Part of the answer was replacing athletic director Blake James and coach Manny Diaz with a pair of high-profile hires—Dan Radakovich, one of the architects of Clemson’s football dynasty, and Cristobal, luring each to Miami with hefty salary pools and the promise of multimillion dollar facility upgrades. The hires, made within days of each other, sent the message that Miami was trying to getIt also made one particular figure uncomfortable.
“Miami had such a strong run—five national championships in a 20-year period— that after all the success, they’re like ‘Why build something new? We’ve won without it,’” says Richt, who coached the team from 2016 to ’18. “There were a lot of things they were behind on or didn’t have in place, period.”
The theory: A strong investment in football leads to winning football teams, which in turn buoys the entire athletic department and university. Of the school’s three verticals—higher education, health care and athletics—the third impacts “how the other two are seen,” Fernandez says. Luis Sr. and Clara separately fled Fidel Castro’s communist regime in the 1960s, not long after Luis Sr. was incarcerated as a political prisoner in Cuba. They met in Miami and spoke only Spanish—the first language of their sons as well. Luis Jr. and Mario learned English from watchingLuis Sr., who died in ’96, opened a car battery shop, and Clara worked as a clerk.
In an interview for his first coaching job, a graduate assistant spot at Miami, then coach Butch Davis asked young Mario about his long-term goal in life. Mario pointed at Davis, “To be sitting in that chair.” Since returning to Miami, he has rediscovered his home. He stops into famed restaurant Versailles to hear Cuban gossip from the locals.
“The U is the one thing that unites this city,” Mas says. “Every city has a sports team it rallies behind. Here, the Dolphins came, then the Heat, then the Marlins, but the U has been here all along.” When Cristobal took over last December, the Hurricanes’ commitment class ranked around 70th in the 247Sports recruiting rankings. They finished 16th. Since then, it’s been a wave of high-profile recruiting wins for UM’s 2023 class: Francis Mauigoa, the top offensive tackle in the country, and Riley Williams, the second-best tight end, as well as three more players within the top 10 at their positions.
“It appears from the outside that the university is committing more to the program than maybe ever,” says Butch Davis, coach at UM from 1995 to 2000. “The ability and potential with Miami is off the charts.”
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