Stubborn Cristobal Shoots His Team in the Foot Yet Again

Mario Cristobal isn’t a dumb man. Not at all. I’ve spoken to him dozens of times over the years and he’s as smart a football guy as you can find. But he sure is stubborn.

The knock on Cristobal was that he’s a great recruiter but not a great coach. And he hates that as any coach would. Cristobal did a solid job at FIU but made his recruiting reputation at Alabama reeling in multiple five stats yearly. At Oregon, he took the program to new heights as a recruiter as well. Coming home to Miami, where he played, was expected to be a home run on the trail. But fans of Oregon pointed to bad losses and head-scratching coaching decisions like not taking a knee against Stanford in 2018 which led to a fumble and a loss. But he’d never do that again, right? He’d learn, right? Wrong.

Oct 7, 2023; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal walks on the field in the second half against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Hard Rock Stadium.

His inexplicable decision to run the football and not take a knee against Georgia Tech confounds many. Tim Hasselbeck was on the call for ESPN and he said it’s “one of the biggest coaching mistakes at this level I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.” The list of people bashing Cristobal is long. And honestly what else can we do?

I like him. He’s a good guy and a good coach, and his affable personality makes you see why he’s a great recruiter. And he did coach Oregon to two PAC 12 titles and beat Ohio State on the road. The guy can obviously coach.

So what can we conclude? It’s stubbornness. It’s a brazen approach as a former OL that his team will finish the game moving forward, that they will take no prisoners and run the clock out his way. It’s a machismo I think. And, plain and simple, it’s dumb.

The one play call any coach loves to dial up is taking a knee. It means you’ve won. And in many ways, it means you’ve not only outplayed your opponent but you imposed your physical will on them. But for some reason, Cristobal won’t do it and now it’s cost him two football games. But more importantly, it’s set any hope of changing the narrative of being a better recruiter than a coach back for years — maybe forever. Reputations are made from situations like this and when you’re already fighting knocks against you as a smart game coach, you can’t do this. You just can’t. At some point it becomes indefensible.