I agree with all of this. Bad tea leaves.
I thought CMC would bring in some semblance of professionalism and a nice rolodex. This seems like more Diaz/Shannon bush league stuff.
Iām confused- didnāt we close with a top 5-7 class nationally?
From Mario indirectly through Feldman. Strong has moved on with no clear job for lack of recruiting. Addae is rumored on the chopping block. Gattis fired for being inept at playcalling AND recruiting. Ponce pushed out. Salaveāa rumored out for lack of recruiting. Kevin Smith gone. Apparently only half the staff was recruiting and developing relationships with schools.
Turning over half a hand-picked staff (with no money constraints) is wild. Iāll give that Gattis was fired for incompetenceā¦I could even understand saying that Ponce was a 1-year rental as a favor to Mario b/c he took too long assembling a staff and was in a bind. Whatās the extenuating circumstances for Smith, Addae, Salavea, Steele.
Itās looking like Mario only made 3/10 coaching hires heās happy with a year later: Rod Wright, Mirabal, Field.
Diaz/Shannon I could understand b/c they were new coaches with one hand tied behind their backs (funding). So when they made a crappy hire it was kinda āwhat do you expect? They donāt have the $$$ and they have a limited network. Theyāre gonna have a poor hit rate on their hires.ā
This is Marioās 3rd gig as a HC and blank checks.
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I donāt think the criticism is wrong. At the same time, a lot of fans were really happy with the staff CMC put together last year. A lot of people had faith in the recruiters.
This staff shakeup might be CMC panicking and pushing reset, or it might be him doing what needs to be done. Itās hard to say, but I do agree with GSC that moving toward a passing spread offense is at least giving the fans what they want, and giving us a chance at success.
Last yearās system was dogshit. The question is, can Dawson install a true offensive identity?
Listen, Mario is under a TON and I mean a TON of pressure to perform. He left a good gig and a good school at Oregon, talked folks into opening up their checkbooks, we have an elite AD, talks of a new stadium (this one seems to have at least some wobbly legs), etcā¦
Gattis: had to go, bad hire? Who knows?
Strong: Got offended and left (canāt blame him in some way)
Ponce: Ehā¦
Steele: Horrible job as DC for us this year but Iām sure he will go lights out for Saban.
Marioās personality may be an issue for some folks, I donāt know?
Kirk Herbstreitās āpressureā on Miami certainly did the trick and he LOVES Mario, which all means nothing, but I always give a HC a pass on year one.
Also, there is something I donāt like about Addae, I mean most of the secondary left to go elsewhere, not a good sign.
One thing is clear, we hauled in a very, very good class this year.
I donāt know, time will tell I guess.
Mario sort of cobbled together a staff at the last minute last year. He took what he could get not necessarily what he wanted. The only one that really blew up was Gattis and I donāt think anyone thought he would be that bad. He won the Broyles Award FFS. Steele underperformed a bit but most of the teamās problems outside of Gattisā failure to see the obvious was the team is just plain weak. Too many marginal players in starting roles. Mediocre players, mediocre results. The top teams donāt have many marginal players and the ones they do have never see the field.
I like the hires. Both coordinators are up and comers who did great in their previous slot. Miami should have their pick of QBās and receivers with Watsonās offense.
We were dreaming to think Mario was going to stroll in and win 10 games in Year 1. The team sucks. Miami has a 6-ish win roster. Two more recruiting classes like this yearās and Miami might be pretty good again. Three or four more and Miami has a stacked roster that any idiot should be able to get 9+ wins out of year in and year out. More than four consecutive top classes and you are in Bama, Georgia, Clemson land and always a contenda. With the transfer portal, the timeline may be somewhat shorter. If Miami is winning, who wouldnāt want to play for them?
Yeah, good read. Iām kinda here too.
The Portal: will make or break us, as with all teams. Kids will go where the NIL is nowadays.
WOULDNāT BE A SOURCE IāD COUNT ONā¦ā¦
YOU CAN HAVE MONEY WHICH OTHERS HAVE AND WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR MOVE OTHERS MIGHT NOT BE AVAILABLEā¦
IT IS INTERESTING THAT A GROUP THAT WANTS TO FIRE PEOPLE IMMEDIATELY ARE NOW NOT ACCEPTING OF IT?
AGAIN LOOK AT ALABAMA THEIR STAFF HAS A LOT OF TURNOVERā¦.
MARIO HAS EXPECTATIONSā¦ā¦
HE IS NOT TRYING TO WIN 8-10 GAMESā¦ā¦
IF YOU WANT CHAMPIONSHIPS THAT IS BUILT THROUGH RECRUITINGā¦.
NEXT YEAR DOESNāT MATTERā¦ā¦
YEAR 3 NOT SO MUCHā¦.
GOING INTO YEAR 4 WE SHOULD BE TOP 5-10 EVERY YEARā¦.
COORDINATORS DONāT MATTER WITHOUT CHAMPIONSHIP TALENTā¦.
YOU ARE NOT TRICKING YOUR WAY TO A CHAMPIONSHIPā¦ā¦
Thatās the pain of it all. 100% self inflicted. He was given a head start (Early Dec hire) and a blank check and wound up ācobbling together a staff at the last secondā.
Iām not even sure he did thatā¦At least at most spots. I mean Charlie Strong as a LB coach? Addae has a hell of a resume, could have left Georgia and went most places. Gattis was a sexy hire. Rod Wright is regarded as a real up and comer and strong recruiter in that state.
I donāt think it was cobbled, it certainly didnāt look like it at the time did it?
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Not saying Dawson canāt work out as OC, anything can happenā¦but there is no way Dawson was option 1 or 2 on Marioās list. Possibly a 3rd option on the list but if Iām being honest Iām betting he was further down the list around number 5 or 6.
Steele saw the writing on the wall and got the f$&@ outta Dodge when a golden opportunity presented itself.
I wouldnāt be surprised if the whole coaching/coordinator aspect of the Miami job is NOT what he expected at all. Iām betting he thought heād get better options that wanted to be hereā¦sadly it wonāt work out that way.
Hindsight is 20/20, buuuuut with that benefit now, apparently:
- Gattis was like an 8th choice OC
- Strong doesnāt look like anyone has been kicking the tires this year? (weāll see if he lands a job in the next month or so)
- Steele leapt at an alternative to Maryland DC jobā¦indicating 1) not a lot of great options for him and 2) that Miami came in at the very last second with a job offer (so was he an 8th choice too?)
- Addae I agree
- Rod Wright was a solid hire
- Ponce I actually believe took the job as a favor to Mario
IIRC the āearlyā hires (made maybe 4-6 weeks after taking the job) were: Kevin Smith, Salaveāa, Mirabal, McClendon (latter 3 came from Oregon). Field was retained from prior staff. McClendon left late Jan.
Strong was in early-mid Feb
Wright was in early March (!)
Gattis was in early Feb
Addae was in early Feb
Steele was in early Feb
Ponce was in early Feb
I think youāre a little harsh on all of these but agree to disagree.
Maryland is not a terrible program, what options do you Steele to have? He wanted to be HC at Auburn, had some support, and then a new regime came in. We shall see on Strongā¦I mean with his rep as a recruiter which he did nothing to disappoint on that end this year, I would be surprised if he doesnāt catch on but maybe youāre right.
Never understood the fascination with Ponceā¦Didnāt mind him, but I saw nothing in his resume that said we had to have him. And thought in todayās game the whole separate QB coach from OC was weird. So I agree there.
Is Strong staying?
Yaā¦
I cannot understand what this man was waiting for with the guys that were out there. Whatever.
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No already gone
Not trying to be harsh, and some I was a fan of (Addae, Strong), but this offseason experience has put that in perspective a bit.
Gattis I didnāt like at the time, thought it was terrible. Didnāt realize heād be this toxic. Addae I liked as an up-and-comer. Steele I thought was past his prime and with the shenanigans at TN I didnāt really trust it. Ponce I was not a fan and thought it was a Mario favorā¦in hindsight I think it was a Ponce favor.
Strong I figured was in twilight of his career and maybe just wanted a job with less responsibility (e.g. not DC or HC) and it was a good mutual fit. Didnāt do bad recruiting. Why the split this year though? Didnāt even get an interview at DC? I thought he would be an on-staff stopgap but who knows. Def odd how things ended here.
The OC clusterfuck last year is kinda fascinating. McClendon was brought on as the Co-OC/WR coach, specifically told he wouldnāt call plays. So Mario was looking for a true playcaller from the start. Then McClendon leaves to be a WR coach at Georgia. No massive loss, just means we need a WR coach now (BFD, shouldnāt affect OC/QB search). Then Gattis gets pissy at Michigan and out of nowhere is hired as our OC/WR coach. Then Ponce comes in as QB coach (QB coach who isnāt the OC? Or tightly affiliated with the OC? Thatās weird). That makes me think the Gattis hire was a last resort and he was disliked enough in his stops that nobody wanted to be his understudy/QB coach. So Ponce did Mario a solid and agreed to be the QB coach here until a better situation arose for Mario. Hence why Ponce was pretty much checked out halfway through the season, and left when the āGattis is as good as firedā writing was on the wall ā [I think] he was never a part of the grand plan for the staff, just here to plug a hole while Gattis was here.
With that, it does start to look like cobbling together part of the staff at the last minute. With blank check and a head startā¦I wouldnāt have expected such a hiring mess.
Agree to disagreeā¦Strong imo added major recruiting juice and still has pretty good defensive coach reputation. I mean he came off of head coaching jobs and then the NFL. I wouldnāt fault you for wanting young go getters, but I think heās a worthy target, not someone you cobble together.
Steele just got picked up by Saban and before UM was last seen giving one of the best college offenses fits at his last job. Iām not going to say Saban isnāt going to be heavily involved or part of the hire wasnāt because familiarityā¦ But I donāt think Kevin Steele was going to have any trouble getting a job if it wasnāt for Cristobal. And Maryland is a competitive Big 10 program, not like he was banished to conference USA or something.
I agree with a lot of the OC/playcaller process. I really thought Cristobal would be bringing a strong rolodex. Itās very alarming.
Letās hope MC has learned some sort of lesson in all of this. I thought last yearās staff, on paper, was close to elite. We had some big names/reputable coaches on that side of the ball with Strong and Steele. Addae seems like an issue to me given how many DBās we lost this year. There HAS to be something there for that many to leave.
I would have been fine with Strong as DC but he was a part of the defensive mess from last year so getting some new blood in there is fine with me. Guidry is a solid hire, IMO.
Dawson, heās a younger guy, somewhat of an up and comer trying to prove himself. Letās see who comes in as RB and WR coach.
As always, the proof will be on the field.