Couldn’t agree more. After 18 years of rotten culture, mediocrity, and bad recruiting evals, this was never going to be a quick turnaround. Go back to Jimmy and Butch, and you’ll see moments that looked exactly like this one.
How Mario works out is TBD. But we’re in week five of year 1. Imho, we’re at least 2 years away from being a consistent 9-win team, and 3-4 years from being nationally relevant. Even the greatest coaches had transition years (Bama 7-5 in 07’; Dabo 15-12 his first two seasons; Luke Fickell 4-8 his first season). It’s not gonna be easy. Also dumb to say we’re doomed. Theres a pretty clear record of good coaches having growing pains and making a jump after.
I mentioned something similar. Having a bad first year in and of itself is not a killer, a number of NC winning coaches experienced the same. However, there are some major concerns I see with Mario
1) He is neither an expert/specialist on O nor D. He will always be dependent on coordinators
2) His offensive philosophy which we all now by now is very bad......It has been confirmed by former team fans and former players who left his program as a result of his archaic philosophy. The media also is calling it out. At Miami, it will get LOUD from fans and local media. He will NOT avoid it at Miami. He doesn't have a killer mentality.
3) He is a very shaky and poor gameday coach. A slow decision maker, hesitant and shook. For a guy who exhibits 1, and 2.....he MUST be a sharp gameday manager. He is not, I watched him at Oregon and he drove those fans crazy too.
In order to be successful Mario has to fix at LEAST 2 of those 3 things. Personally, I would never hire a coach who didn't bring an expert skill on one of the two sides of the ball.