Understanding Mario Cristobal’s thorough and meticulous process with putting together a coaching staff
Miami Hurricanes coach
Mario Cristobal takes his time when it comes to hiring his coordinators.
That was Cristobal’s process as the head coach at Oregon and to help provide more context as to why he will take his time at Miami, we went back and looked at the hiring of defensive coordinator Andy Avalos with the Ducks.
Avalos was hired at Oregon on February 27th of 2019—nearly a month after the traditional national signing day.
“Our process is real thorough,” Cristobal said in March of 2019 when reviewing the hiring of Avalos at Oregon. “There is no real thinking of hey I know this guy or I know that guy. We don’t hire friends and acquaintances, we hire people that are the best for the program.
“We don't hire friends and acquaintances, we hire people that are the best for the program.”
Cristobal says he was put through that process during an interview with former New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini.
“It is a process that I was put through back in 2006 when I had an opportunity to interview with the New York Jets with coach Mangini and I thought I was going for a walk in the park that would be an hour and a half chill session in which we exchange a little bit of information and the process that he used, which I think is Bill Belichick’s process that is very extensive, thorough, and borderline grueling process that not only tested your knowledge, it tested your ability to teach in front of others on the board from a demonstration standpoint. How to assess film and assess off another team’s film and teach off of the film that your guys showed earlier in the year and correct.”
Cristobal’s interviews are known to go for five hours at times. He went through the process he takes each candidate through when interviewing.
“It starts with the fact that you have to be a great person. You have to be all about the players and you have to do things the right way on and off the field.
“The next thing is I want a guy that has a tremendous amount of knowledge with tying the back end to the front seven. It is all about seeing how all the pieces fit and you leave your nose open on one side because you are overplaying another side.
“When you are teaching this stuff, you have to be a clear and concise teacher that can have a presence. It doesn’t matter how much a guy knows. We have seen a lot of guys come in here at all levels that can talk and make your head spin around, but that has nothing to do with anything. Can a guy tie it all together? Does he have answers for things we face in our conference?
“These are the schematic things that we want to address. These are the questions that we have. Talk to me about how you address it and how you scheme it with the type of players that you look for. How you game plan it during the week and how you pass that down to every single coach.
“We watch film together and we are pretty critical about all the film and I say talk to me like I am a freshman. We will put him through a series of questions to see if what they are talking to us about matches their film.
“We will also get into recruiting. The guy has to be a strong recruiter. I think the day and age of having guys that just coach and guys that just recruit is out the window. Your most important recruits are the ones in the building. Your ability to connect and have relationships with players that are demanding without being demeaning is at the forefront. There is no head faking with this stuff.
“The entire organization is involved…We are very meticulous throughout the process.”
Cristobal also made it clear that it is important to him that the coordinators are strong with emphasizing the principles of their scheme.
“Guys have to have rules,” Cristobal said. “That is important to me. One thing that was always drilled into my head as a player and as a coach at Alabama is the what, the how, and the why? What are we doing? How are we doing it? And why are we doing it that way? Every person in the organization needs to know those things.”
Cristobal’s track record of hiring successful coordinators should earn the trust of the Miami fanbase.
While at FIU, Cristobal hired coordinators that went on to bigger and better jobs like James Coley, Scott Satterfield, Geoff Collins, and Todd Orlando. At Oregon, both Andy Avalos and Marcus Arroyo went on to take head coaching jobs at Boise State and UNLV respectively.
Does Cristobal take a long time to hire his coordinators? Yes, but he has a track record of getting the hire right—which is what matters most at the end of the day.
