Mario Cristobal shares how firing at Florida International shaped him

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal is one win away from the pinnacle of the sport. If he can earn a win on Monday, he’d join the ranks of the national championship-winning coaches. More than that, he’d have done it at his alma mater, where he won multiple national championships as a player.

At one point, it’s worth pointing out, it looked like Cristobal’s career could be going in a different direction. Fired by the FIU Golden Panthers, he was forced to go and be an assistant coach again before having the chance to lead a program as a head coach again. That firing was an experience that not only shaped him but also helped shape Cristobal into who he is today.

“You know, I’m pretty stubborn,” Mario Cristobal said. “Always have been stubborn. In my mind, we were gonna win a national championship there, and people would look at me like I was crazy. Sometimes if you don’t move and God wants you to move, he’ll kick you so you can move. For whatever reason, that’s the way it worked out.”

Mario Cristobal landed at FIU in 2007. Prior to that he had been an assistant coach who made stops at both Rutgers and Miami. He would inherit a massive rebuild at FIU, with the Golden Panthers going winless in 2006. It would take some time to get things rolling, but by 2010, he had FIU in a bowl, which he followed up with an 8-5 season, which was the most for a single season in program history to that point. Still, when the team slipped to 3-9 in 2012, it wasn’t enough to save his job, even amid criticism of the decision.

Like many coaches in his position, Cristobal had to go back to being an assistant coach. That meant going to Alabama and working for Nick Saban, where he was the offensive line coach and assistant head coach. That was a role he was able to parlay into the Oregon head coaching job. Then, in 2022, he returned home to rebuild the Miami program.

“And it was a blessing because I had the opportunity to go learn under Coach [Nick] Saban,” Cristobal said. “And then eventually end up at the University of Oregon. Blessed to be there. And it all led back here to the University of Miami. At the time, you can’t see that. You can’t see straight when something like that happens, especially when you invest every waking moment of your life into it. But I thank God that it did.”

Now, Mario Cristobal is looking to cap off his homecoming and rebuild with a national championship. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST on Monday, January 19th. It will, effectively, be a home game for the Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium.