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Mario's Speech Patterns, His System, and His Coaching Ability

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LACane43

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Sep 2, 2024
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For the last three years, I've watched every interview Mario has conducted and listened intently on what he's said.

What's stuck out to me is two things, and I'll elaborate on both and why it's a bad sign coming from a head coach:
  1. The repetitive nature of what he's said
  2. The theory that brute force and work are the key to success
On topic one, after losses and bad games, he goes back to the same lines:
  • "We'll watch tape and re-evaluate what happened and clean things up."
  • "There's no if's and's or but's. We got our teeth kicked in and it hurts."
  • "We're going back to the grind on Greentree this week and are going to work our butts off."
  • "There's no catchy slogans, nothing to put on a t-shirt, no tweets about it... it's all about work"
Why is this worrying? He's clearly a man that view's Saban's systematic approach as the holy grail in coaching. Systems are only good if a positive end result is consistently obtained. The issue with Mario is that he's got a flawed system in place regarding in-game coaching, watching tape from previous losses, and disciplining his team on in-game penalties. His "system" is the only thing that has somewhat changed the culture of the team... there's a process in place for everything. Unfortunately, the process is well-defined but not geared towards success, hence why we can't get over the hump on winning important games against "lesser skilled" teams. Mario's system is also rigid - when something happens outside of the expected scope or plans, the team fails or struggles to respond. We can all see these moments in games. Lastly, system's depend on the people in place. Saban's ground and pound football and his system worked for years because of the personnel in his program... we aren't blessed with the depth and talent across the roster of Saban's teams. This strategy was like fitting a square peg into a round hole.

On topic two, we consistently hear that the key to success is to outwork everyone.
Why is this an issue? Efficiency. If hard work was the only criterion needed for success, we'd see more 170 lb players in the NFL and people who failed fourth grade math end up graduating from MIT with a PhD. This thought process consistently ignores the idea of working smarter, not just harder. With everything you do in life, there's an optimal way to learn and improve. Mario's mentality of doing more or working harder ignores this principal and removes strategy & optimality from the equation. Watching five hours of film per day doesn't mean you're better than watching someone who watches two hours if it's garbage film, and you're not making correlations from what happened to how to respond.

Miami has consistently found different ways to lose in the last few years: this is a function of the inability of Mario's system to adjust on the fly, and improve over time. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - that's where we are. The whole approach to gameday needs to change and reflect a higher level of flexibility and intelligence. Hopefully Mario's hires can bring this, because he can't.
 
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LACane43 said:
For the last three years, I've watched every interview Mario has conducted and listened intently on what he's said.

What's stuck out to me is two things, and I'll elaborate on both and why it's a bad sign coming from a head coach:
  1. The repetitive nature of what he's said
  2. The theory that brute force and work are the key to success
On topic one, after losses and bad games, he goes back to the same lines:
  • "We'll watch tape and re-evaluate what happened and clean things up."
  • "There's no if's and's or but's. We got our teeth kicked in and it hurts."
  • "We're going back to the grind on Greentree this week and are going to work our butts off."
  • "There's no catchy slogans, nothing to put on a t-shirt, no tweets about it... it's all about work"
Why is this worrying? He's clearly a man that view's Saban's systematic approach as the holy grail in coaching. Systems are only good if a positive end result is consistently obtained. The issue with Mario is that he's got a flawed system in place regarding in-game coaching, watching tape from previous losses, and disciplining his team on in-game penalties. His "system" is the only thing that has somewhat changed the culture of the team... there's a process in place for everything. Unfortunately, the process is well-defined but not geared towards success, hence why we can't get over the hump on winning important games against "lesser skilled" teams. Mario's system is also rigid - when something happens outside of the expected scope or plans, the team fails or struggles to respond. We can all see these moments in games. Lastly, system's depend on the people in place. Saban's ground and pound football and his system worked for years because of the personnel in his program... we aren't blessed with the depth and talent across the roster of Saban's teams. This strategy was like fitting a square peg into a round hole.

On topic two, we consistently hear that the key to success is to outwork everyone.
Why is this an issue? Efficiency. If hard work was the only criterion needed for success, we'd see more 170 lb players in the NFL and people who failed fourth grade math end up graduating from MIT with a PhD. This thought process consistently ignores the idea of working smarter, not just harder. With everything you do in life, there's an optimal way to learn and improve. Mario's mentality of doing more or working harder ignores this principal and removes strategy & optimality from the equation. Watching five hours of film per day doesn't mean you're better than watching someone who watches two hours if it's garbage film, and you're not making correlations from what happened to how to respond.

Miami has consistently found different ways to lose in the last few years: this is a function of the inability of Mario's system to adjust on the fly, and improve over time. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - that's where we are. The whole approach to gameday needs to change and reflect a higher level of flexibility and intelligence. Hopefully Mario's hires can bring this, because he can't.
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Funny Reaction Too Long Didnt Read GIF
 
LeavingJesusland said:
Now we’re going to do a psychoanalysis of Mario? 😂
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If you don’t want to understand the psychology of why we struggle, be my guest. Everyone is searching for answers - I’m providing a logical take on how we keep getting here…

Also, I’m arguably one of the most educated people (by schooling) on this board and wanted to share my thoughts.
 
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LACane43 said:
If you don’t want to understand the psychology of why we struggle, be my guest. Everyone is searching for answers - I’m providing a logical take on how we keep getting here…

Also, I’m arguably one of the most educated people (by schooling) on this board and wanted to share my thoughts.
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LMAO. Have you been around these parts? That’s not saying much.
 
LACane43 said:
If you don’t want to understand the psychology of why we struggle, be my guest. Everyone is searching for answers - I’m providing a logical take on how we keep getting here…

Also, I’m arguably one of the most educated people (by schooling) on this board and wanted to share my thoughts.
Click to expand...
An educated person would know they have no data to confirm what the education level of the board is by strata even relative to the us or a state, despite stupid comments here from even some doctors and phd degree holders.

And most very educated people don’t have to proclaim it.
 
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LACane43 said:
Lmao, I know that. In 95% of rooms, odds are I’d be one of the most intelligent. Some people here won’t care or breeze over this - I don’t need to reach them. This is for people that want a real analysis other than “we fumbled”
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I actually appreciated your initial porst but the I’m thr smartest guy here isn’t going to play well, even if it’s true.
 
100% there’s problems with the system. That’s how you have 3 DCs in four years and have had at least one side of the ball in total disarray at all times here.

His system is mediocre at evaluating, developing, hiring, discipline, cohesion, game day management and more. He’s signing off on chaos year in year out and isn’t specialized enough to support at least one side of the ball out of dysfunction.

Oregon and Knight are fully committed right now. They masked his deficiencies. This is almost the same guy who got fired at FIU, just with some time under Saban - which is in no way an automatic ticket to success.
 
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Look, you are giving Cristobal too much credit. He does not have a "system." His philosophy is to stack blue chippers on top of blue chippers and hope the talent that he acquires overcomes his ineptitude and inability to prepare for opponents by watching film, scheming a game plan for that opponent, and effectively manage a game. He is a grunt. He's an o-line meathead. Mario only truly enjoys recruiting. The technical aspect of the job, the scheming, the part that requires attention to detail and deep analysis and x's and o's is not his forte. He is who he is. The guy is in his 50s. He ain't changing.
 
MiamisMoperiestMopes said:
I actually appreciated your initial porst but the I’m thr smartest guy here isn’t going to play well, even if it’s true.
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I’m not the smartest guy here, but my words should hold value. There was also a previous comment that said everyone here was stupid and won’t read this, to which I proclaimed “that’s fine… not everyone has to care about this post”.
 
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Ironmanfootball said:
Every educated slap proclaims it, getting Dr. put on their junk mail and making you call them Dr Slappy Jones or whatever. Even the slaps in lower ed do it.
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Not remotely true, only the ones that have inferiority complexes or where it’s standardized. Most masters and phd’s do not put it in their names
 
Last edited:
Nice post, but what's said in public doesn't mean that's what's said behind closed doors. There's a term for this, it's called coachspeak and most coaches deploy it when dealing with the media.

Very few coaches are candid and forthcoming in interviews. I can think of better things to do than watching what he or most say after a football game. You won't find answers in that environment and are wasting your time.

Have a good one.
 
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