Mario Cristobal

Mario Manuel Cristobal (born September 24, 1970) is Cuban-American head football coach of the Miami Hurricanes football team at the University of Miami.

Cristobal played high school football at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami and then went to play for the University of Miami, where he was a four-year letterman between 1988 and 1992.

Cristobal played under Hall of Fame coaches Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson during the rise of the University of Miami as one of the nation's elite collegiate football programs.

He was an all-conference offensive tackle on the Miami Hurricanes football team that won national championships in 1989 and 1991.

During his four seasons at the University of Miami, he was a member of two national championship-winning teams (1989 and 1991).

In 1992, Cristobal earned First-team All-Big East Conference as an offensive tackle.

Cristobal graduated from the University of Miami in 1993 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Miami School of Business and later earned a master's degree there in 2001.

Following his collegiate career at the University of Miami, Cristobal signed a free agent contract with the Denver Broncos in 1994.

He played for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe for two seasons, in 1995 and 1996, and then launched his collegiate coaching career.

Cristobal's coaching career began at the University of Miami where he served as a graduate assistant under head football coach Butch Davis from 1998 to 2000.

From 2001 to 2003, Cristobal was the tight ends and offensive line coach at Rutgers University under Greg Schiano.

He returned to Miami to serve as tight ends coach and offensive line coach under Larry Coker for three seasons from 2004 to 2006.

On December 19, 2006, Cristobal was named the second head coach in FIU's history.

He also was the first Cuban-American head coach in Division I-A.

Cristobal inherited a team with a winless record the previous season.

He implemented a spread offense, and stated that he expected FIU to achieve success "faster than what we did at Rutgers", a process which "took five years".

FIU struggled for most of his first season as head coach, losing their first eleven games.

However, on December 1, the Golden Panthers finally broke a Football Bowl Subdivision-leading 23-game losing skid with a 38–19 victory over North Texas.

His second season showed considerable signs of improvement.

After three straight nonconference losses to Kansas, Iowa, and USF, the Golden Panthers under Cristobal pulled together an upset win against MAC opponent Toledo.

The team used this momentum to build a three-game winning streak, defeating Sun Belt Conference opponents North Texas and MTSU before it continued on to finish with a 5–7 record.

Cristobal previously was the head football coach at Florida International University (FIU) from 2007 to 2012 and the University of Oregon from 2017 to 2021.

The team was two wins away from a bowl game before falling out of contention in the 2008 Shula Bowl against in-state rivals FAU in a 57–50 overtime loss, before finishing its season with a home victory over Western Kentucky.

The third season under Cristobal came with high expectations after winning five games the previous year.

The team regressed under his leadership and took a step back going 3–9 overall, with wins coming against North Texas, Western Kentucky, and Louisiana-Lafayette.

During the offseason recruiting period, Cristobal was able to secure FIU's first ESPN 150 player, Willis Wright, from nearby Miami Springs High, the same school that produced T. Y. Hilton.

After being predicted to finish sixth in the conference in the preseason by the Sun Belt Writers Association, Cristobal led his young Panthers team to their first Sun Belt Conference championship after four years at the helm.

Cristobal is one of several University of Miami players from the late 1980s who appears in the documentary The U, which premiered December 12, 2009, on ESPN, and chronicles the program's rapid ascent and national championships and the era's associated scandals that proved costly to it.

The documentary drew 2.3 million viewers, making it then the most watched documentary in ESPN history.

He was also named the fittest coach currently in the FBS according to an ESPN blog to which he confirmed on The Dan Le Batard Show on May 29, 2009.

As of the 2009 season Mario Cristobal has retired the "shirt-and-tie" look and has opted to wear traditional collared shirts during games.

FIU, who had never had a winning season prior to the 2010 campaign, saw themselves atop the conference tied with Troy University who shared a similar 6–2 conference record.

FIU did win their head-to-head matchup with Troy, 52–35.

At the conclusion of the season FIU was selected to participate in their first bowl game, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

They won with a field goal in the closing seconds against Toledo, 34–32, after Toledo went for a two-point conversion to take the lead, 32–31.

That win gave them a 7–6 record, their first ever winning record.

Cristobal carries a reputation of being an excellent recruiter, setting up for his third season at FIU by putting together an impressive recruiting class of 23 student athletes, at least 20 of them from Florida.

He wears a customary shirt and tie along with dress pants for each and every game to honor his idol, Joe Paterno.

On December 5, 2012, Cristobal was fired of his position as head coach of the FIU football program after going 3–9.

FIU Athletic Director Pete Garcia explained his reasoning for firing Cristobal as "He's done a very good job for this program, but we've gone backwards over the last year and a half. Over the last 22 games, we've gone 8-14."