Mario Cristobal used lessons from Nick Saban and Alabama to make Miami a national championship contender.
It was located in his hometown, so Cristobal was excited for the opportunity. But FIU is a hard place to win. “What you learn in a place like that is that you really have no assistance,” Cristobal said Saturday in Miami.
“You have to do everything. You have to be the– name it. You have to be the athletic director. You have to be the fundraiser. You have to be the director of anything regarding campus. You have no resources. You’re going to have to find a way to overcome anything and everything and still do the best by your players.” He seemed to be succeeding. In his first year, the Panthers broke a 23-game losing streak, and in 2010, they won the Sun Belt for the first time ever.“You learn the hard facts that you have one season that wasn’t up to par and you think that– I could go on and on about it, but I choose not to because I said it before,” Cristobal said. “I think if God wants you to move and you’re stubborn, and I am stubborn, and you’re not moving, He’ll kick you in the butt and make you move.” Enter the Saban School for Wayward Coaches. Cristobal took a job as Alabama’s offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. From 2013 through 2016, he learned from the best. Alabama’s offensive line won a Joe Moore Award during his tenure, Cristobal earned a national recruiter of the year nod from 247Sports and the Crimson Tide won the 2015 national championships. On the other end, Cristobal left for Oregon, where he got a co-offensive coordinator job. When Willie Taggert was fired during his first season, he got a promotion to the Ducks’ head coach spot. “That’s a Ph.D. now,” Miami offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, who has worked with Cristobal through his career and known the coach since he was 14, toldSaturday. “You got a Ph.D. now on how to run a coaching staff. Certain things that you cannot compromise in terms of recruiting. I think it would be those things. “What do you have to squeeze people about? What do you have to kind of ease up on. Those kind of things. But he got his Ph.D..” After four seasons at Oregon, Cristobal got a chance to return to his hometown again. This time it was at his alma mater, Miami. According to an offensive lineman who played for both coaches, Cristobal working off of the Saban system, but not exactly replicating it. “I would say they’re alike and different,” UM center James Brockermeyer said. “Obviously coach Cristobal has taken a lot of things from coach Saban that he learned over the years, whether that’s how practice is scheduled or day-to-day operations. But he’s put his own spin on it at the same time, it’s not like a carbon copy of the old Alabama.” Miami linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said the Hurricanes’ no-nonsense head coach doesn’t spend much time telling Saban stories. “He doesn’t really talk about working for Coach Saban a lot,” Bissainthe said. “Sometimes he does mention the things he’s learned from coach Saban and the things he took from coach Saban, but he doesn’t really talk about working for him that much.”Cristobal’s way, which includes more crucial work in the transfer portal than Saban ever did at Alabama, is working. Miami was one of the final teams in the playoff field this season, but took down lower-seeded Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss teams. Now it’s about to play in the national championship game. It will take another enormous upset to get that job done, perhaps the most shocking of the 2025 season, against undefeated No. 1 Indiana, the team that crushed Alabama 38-3 in the playoff quarterfinals before similarly dispatching Oregon.Alabama football lands veteran transfer portal edge help from another SEC schoolThis former Alabama player is a key part of Miami’s national title run Miami will at least have the crowd on its side. The Hurricanes will face the Hoosiers in their home stadium, in the same area where Cristobal was born and has coached two college teams. The moment is bigger than ever, but Cristobal is facing it like every other game, a Saban-esque way of handling business. “This is going to be substance,” Crisotbal said. {Blocking and tackling, throwing and catching and running and covering and all the things that go with playing high-level football at this time of year deep into the season when everybody is banged up. Your best has to show, and what the foundation of football is, and that’s technique, fundamentals, scheme and execution.” Miami and Indiana are scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT Monday. The national championship game will be aired on ESPN.Matt Stahl covers University of Alabama sports for AL.com. He joined AL.com in July of 2023. He previously covered University of Missouri athletics for the Columbia Daily Tribune and started his career covering...
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