Mike Lombardi, former Raiders executive and new North Carolina GM, takes shot at Mario Cristobal

[MikeyCanez]

Alright fine then. Freshman all Americans if that is your standard. Bain regressed from year one to year two. Would you not agree? Frederique showed promise but got battered by Syracuse, but he is a freshman, that happens. So I am not losing sleep over Frederique over one bad performance. The one you can definitively point to is Mauigoa who is legit at RT. You have a whopping three to four players who are good to elite in three years here. What about the rest of his full classes here (2022 and 2023)? Let's take a look at the so-called "ace" recruiter, shall we?

2022 (16 commits)
Entered the portal after accomplishing nothing:
Khamauri Rogers
Cyrus Moss
Jaleel Skinner
Nyjalik Kelly
Chris Graves
Trevante Citizen
Jacurri Brown

Accomplished nothing or are liabilities but no portal yet:

Markeith Williams
Jaden Harris (Need I say more?)
Matthew McCoy

Average to good:

Bissante
Cooper
Isaiah Horton

2023 (21 commits):

Done nothing:

Kinsler
Tinilau
Pulliam
Horton
Bobby Washington
Robby Washington (portal)
Tripp (portal)
Bryant
Okunlola
Stafford (portal)
Acheampong (portal?)
Johnson (portal)
Wayne (portal)

Some promise, but too early to tell:

R. Williams
D. Brown
Aguirre
E. Williams (Looking for QB upgrades in the portal still)
D. Joyce (punter/kicker)

Studs:

Fletcher
Bain
Mauigoa

2024 is too early to say one way or the other, but I believe Frederique is a stud.

What I just listed, simply isn't good enough to be a true title contender. No emotion involved. Simply data and facts.

(Now back to my opinion) So we know Mario is a poor game day coach like Butch Davis was;therefore, you have to have an elite eye for talent like Butch did or a generational qb (Ward) to be anything more 6-6, 7-5, 8-4 here. This is why I said that Mario has already peaked here if he is going to be in charge of everything. This season is as good as it will get. And that's not good enough, imo.

Now here is some analysis and I mean that seriously!

Mario had all of two weeks to work on the Class of 2022, but we will count it for the sake of argument:

- Not sure why there is so much hate for McCoy. OL take longer to develop and he was more than adequate this season. Should be better next season.
- You left out Ahmad Moten, who I would consider a development success given how he ended the season.
- Cooper regressed this season but he is still going to be a pro, so I think he still counts as a success.
- Harris isn't good but he was also the 44th ranked CB in that class so I am not really sure what the expectation was.
- Definitely bummed Kelly didn't develop as expected, that one stings.

Overall, that is ~30% hit rate (I count McCoy) on 16 recruits. Just using Oregon as an example, they signed 17 kids in 2022 and five of them are on the two-deep. Josh Conerly (who we were in on late!) is an absolute stud, but otherwise this is pretty comparable.

2023:

- I don't have a lot to argue here other than I am not ready to give up on Okunlola, Bryant, Bobby Washington or Josh Horton.
- Considering guys like Okunlola and Horton are redshirt freshmen, I'd argue it is still way too early to judge this class as well.

Assuming we don't count those guys, that's ~28% hit rate (if you don't count Joyce or Emory). Oregon signed 30 (!) kids and five of them are on the two-deep (Matayo U is a monster). Pretty comparable.

2024:

- Too early to tell but agree that Frederique is going to be a good one.

My point here isn't to say that we are on par with Oregon, we aren't, so more of our young guys are going to play. They also have some serious financial advantages. And this analysis might look way different in two years as guys develop or don't. If you want to criticize, the lack of truly top-end guys is frustrating. But it is still really early!

More than anything, I think the idea that you need to hit on 50% of your recruiting class to compete for titles is not based in reality. Maybe this was true five years ago, but with the portal and kids transferring before they even bother to develop, I think 30% is a decent number.

I didn't do the same analysis for Georgia or Alabama but I think you would find that the hit rate percentages are pretty similar.

Mario has a lot of warts and he won't ever be confused with a master strategist, but our team is much more talented than it was two years ago and dumping on his recruiting feels like an overreaction.

 

[HurricaneinLA]

Mike Lombardi is one of the worst executives in professional sports history. He was an executive for the Eagles in 1998 when they went 3-13 after being out of a job for three years after the Cleveland debacle, he was then hired by Al Davis and turned the Raiders roster from one of the most talented to the absolute garbage can of the NFL, was a ******* personnel assistant for one year in 07 and then stayed out of a job in the NFL for SIX YEARS.

Was hired by Cleveland as the GM in 13 and fired a year later. Dude hung himself onto Belichicks nuts, that's his greatest achievement. Everywhere he went, everything went to ****, he got canned or let go and then, nobody wanted him back. A wannabe know-it-all.

And for our beloved Eagles fans, here's a statement of his from 2017: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com...agles-mike-lombardi-carson-wentz-ringer-video

Guess what the **** the Eagles did in the 2017 season...

So true, I grew up a Raiders fan since John Madden was the head coach before they won their first Super Bowl. After this clown Mike Lombardi took over the Raiders he made them unwatchable. They were so terrible, I stopped following them all together. I heard they are in Vegas these days still at the bottom of their division.

 

[TemplarCane]

Mario Derangement Syndrome

 

[Empirical Cane]

"...Cam, whom I love, is in the past. Evaluate for the future."

 

[Empirical Cane]

"..I doubt that Miami goes back to 7-6 next year. Years of high end recruiting will bear fruit, as it usually does. Miami may be a 9-3 team next year(QB play TBD), but I don't think this program is smoke and mirrors anymore."

Far, FAR more likely Miami is a 7 (or less) dub dub squad next year than a 9-10 dub dub.

Also, no ACCCG appearance nor CFPO.

Don't kid yourself.

 

[airrang]

For the life of me, I don't understand why some of yall are fans of this team AT ALL.

 

[Hegemon]

Number 1 offense in the country nothing to show for it
Year 3 no ACC chip appearance
No playoff appearance

But if you want to enjoy your participation trophy and Pop-Tart bowl, then enjoy

Did you have us going undefeated to start the year?

 

[Negro-Wan Kanobi]

We were unranked in the preseason here. You all are acting like we were a consensus playoff pick that fell apart and vastly underachieved. Mario might not be the guy, but this season is not the evidence for that.

 

[HardCane]

Yeah, the Mario/Miami hate is real. Have to think Mario’s super aggressive, tough guy approach rubs some the wrong way. Hope Mario is taking names and extracting revenge from these clowns.

Now if Mario can get his defense to play super aggressive and tough. Kind of ironic right? Big tough coach with a D that doesn't hit and tackle with aggression. We have been a drag down tackling operation for years.

 

[GojiraCane]

Player development is meaningless within a program if players can be plucked away by a higher spending collective after their first or second year. Lombardi is going to have to have a Top 5 NIL budget to keep that from happening. If North Carolina does not they will struggle to retain key players each year.

 

[LMCane]

You're not wrong, and neither is Lombardi. Going into year 4, our team has holes all over it. A defense that can't stop anything. Mario built that.

now do the nations best offense

or does mario only get blame and no credit.

5 wins, 7 wins, potentially 11 wins.

 

[Elmer Leghorn]

now do the nations best offense

or does mario only get blame and no credit.

5 wins, 7 wins, potentially 11 wins.

He gets credit for that, yes. Do we have a QB for next season? He gets credit for that too. I don't care what our record is. We still aren't a good football team. I expect a loss in the bowl game.

 

[CaneDawgCrew]

For the life of me, I don't understand why some of yall are fans of this team AT ALL.

Really aren’t. I liked the 83, 87, 89, 91, and 01 teams better. Many of those years in between I liked those teams better too. They came to play. One of my favorite teams was the one that beat Texas at Texas.

Or did you mean of the U in general?

So if you are disgusted with Grier and Ross should you not be a Dolphins fan?

The funny part is bet your *** the people you are talking about have been fans longer than you can imagine. Everyone is different.

 

[airrang]

Really aren’t. I liked the 83, 87, 89, 91, and 01 teams better. Many of those years in between I liked those teams better too. They came to play. One of my favorite teams was the one that beat Texas at Texas.

Or did you mean of the U in general?

So if you are disgusted with Grier and Ross should you not be a Dolphins fan?

The funny part is bet your *** the people you are talking about have been fans longer than you can imagine. Everyone is different.

Naw man. Some of these cats are not fans. I literally have fans of other schools talk more positive about Miami than some of these “fans” here. It really amazes me.

 

[CaneDawgCrew]

Naw man. Some of these cats are not fans. I literally have fans of other schools talk more positive about Miami than some of these “fans” here. It really amazes me.

One could argue that the amount of disgust they exhibit make them bigger fans. Not happy with the status quo.

Once you taste success…. You maybe are young!

Did you turn off the TV when Mario took the field goal with over 3 minutes left at Syracuse? Season on the line? I did because I knew we weren’t getting the ball back. I was trying to hide but family texting me ruined it.

Everyone in here is a fan.

 

[airrang]

One could argue that the amount of disgust they exhibit make them bigger fans. Not happy with the status quo.

Once you taste success…. You maybe are young!

Did you turn off the TV when Mario took the field goal with over 3 minutes left at Syracuse? Season on the line? I did because I knew we weren’t getting the ball back. I was trying to hide but family texting me ruined it.

Everyone in here is a fan.

Now I know you are tripping. You can’t believe everyone here is a fan. There are clearly people here who are NOT Miami fans.

 

[canesstevealum08]

One could argue that the amount of disgust they exhibit make them bigger fans. Not happy with the status quo.

Once you taste success…. You maybe are young!

Did you turn off the TV when Mario took the field goal with over 3 minutes left at Syracuse? Season on the line? I did because I knew we weren’t getting the ball back. I was trying to hide but family texting me ruined it.

Everyone in here is a fan.

There's a medium with a good fan that's ****ed off in a bad fan that's not ****ed off. I'm very happy with the 10 wins I'm ****ed off with the two losses Mario deserves blame for both of those in different ways. But it doesn't mean that he can't build on it that's where I think the diehards get it wrong.

 

[Oregon Bar Pilot]

don't ever count on Mario suddenly getting smarter

 

[Angry Ibis]

To summarize 9 pages in: Some jackwagon says true things about Mario... Miami fans cry... news at 11.

 

[Dwinstitles]

As we all know by now, Bill Belichick is now the head coach at North Carolina. On Friday, new North Carolina GM and former Oakland Raiders GM Mike Lombardi joined Christopher Russo for his weekly segment on Sirius radio. Lombardi wasted no time taking a shot at the Miami Hurricanes head coach, Mario Cristobal.

Lombardi was asked by Russo to give a rundown of the responsibilities with his new job title. While providing the description of various responsibilities, Lombardi said:

“That job will entail player evaluations, developing a grading system, building a team around what you want to become. That’s so important, you know. In college you have all these first round picks. Well, you still got to build a team. I mean, Mario Cristobal has been wonderful in recruiting, but they haven’t been able to get to the final 12. You got to build a full team, it’s not about winning the recruiting battle. It’s about making the team the best it can be. So, for me that’s the job.”

Tells you he’s doing something right. When media people attack you it’s cause you doing something right and living in their head rent free