1. Mario Cristobal, Alabama offensive line coach, 45: He’s spent the past three seasons working under Nick Saban and was named the National Recruiter of the Year this winter after helping the Tide reel in, among others,
Calvin Ridley,
Daron Payne and
Minkah Fitzpatrick, three of the nation’s top freshmen. No one is any more plugged into South Florida in college coaching than Cristobal, a Miami native and former standout O-lineman at UM. Cristobal has head coaching experience, having spent six seasons transforming FIU from by far the worst program in Division I into one that went to two bowl games. He also has a good eye for coaching talent, having hired Scott Satterfield, Geoff Collins and Todd Orlando — three of the more respected up-and-comers in the college game — and played a key role in helping Greg Schiano flip
Rutgers from laughing stock status.
Cristobal’s teams were fast and physical. They beat eventual co-Big East champion Louisville and then C-USA power UCF, two programs with much greater resources than FIU. At FIU, things went bad in a hurry in his final season, but a lot of that stemmed from the dysfunctional administration. Some may knock that Cristobal doesn’t have coordinator experience on his resume. Of course, neither did Jim Harbaugh, Urban Meyer or Art Briles, and things have worked out fine with those guys.
My two cents: UM desperately needs someone with deep South Florida ties and who understands UM. Cristobal does. Maybe he could even bring a Mel Tucker along with him as his DC. His time working under Saban, and learning that organizational structure is a plus.
