I’m also not even going to blame Mario since this is pretty much out of his control. Did he f^ck up last year? Yeah, yeah he did.
But he got f^cked worse being promised financial commitment for his tenure here and these cheap twats backed off after a year.
This relationship won’t work if he doesn’t get proper financial backing to play the game with everyone else. And that’s a scary, scary thought.
This might be an unpopular take, but I disagree slightly. The University stepped up big time. There are many examples…his salary…the coaching staff budget….additional staff members (Highsmith, analysts, quality control, recruiting department, etc.)…increased University budgets….private jets transporting coaches instead of flying commercial…etc. There are many examples of the University’s renewed commitment.
Mario then delivered probably the worst season I have ever seen and that includes Lou Saban and Coker teams. The reason we are being forced to overpay is to compensate for last season. That’s on Mario, not the administration. Yet, some of us want the money brokers to fix things by throwing more cash at the problem. That is the fiscally irresponsible thing to do. Throw good money after a bad product?
Mario needs to fix the product before being rewarded with more money. I can understand why some boosters will say…”nah…I’m going to pay market rate, not overpay.” That’s better than not contributing any money at all. Fixing the product means winning 8 games and not having a losing record. Last year’s performance would give an investor pause before investing again, let alone increasing their contribution.
I like Mario. I want him to succeed. In a world with no limitations and no consequences, we would throw obscene amounts of money at players. But that isn’t reality and Mario made this bed. The onus is on him to dig us out of this mess. He needs to show the fans, boosters, administration and the college football world that his program is on the rise and not fledgling. You do that by winning football games. You win football games and the money will start flowing, again.