The crazy 2021 college football coaching carousel got a little bit wilder on Monday as Miami officially fired head coach Manny Diaz and is hiring Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal to replace him.
Miami has been reportedly negotiating with Cristobal for days and is expected to bring in Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich along with the Oregon coach, but it certainly has not been a clean process.
The execution has been what you’d expect from a bunch of rich, well-meaning people who don’t know much about college athletics. It has been bold and cold, ambitious and amateurish, brazen and sloppy. Perhaps that’s the cost of doing business at a place that hasn’t really ever done the business of college athletics well, winning more because of the surrounding talent than the campus accommodations.
What Miami did to current coach Manny Diaz on Sunday is the type of egregious mismanagement that happens when grand ambitions turn blind. To leave your football coach dangling for an entire day while you wait to potentially fire him — or maybe not — is a terrible look. A lot of people around college athletics were laughing at Miami on Sunday while feeling awful for Diaz, who twisted in the wind in a cruel fashion.
Diaz didn’t hear from any Miami officials all day regarding his job, according to sources. He got a commitment from a player in Dade County, linebacker Wesley Bissainthe, on Saturday. On Sunday, he got marched out to the plank for the world to see. He’s still standing there as of late Sunday.
Basically, Miami offered the job to Cristobal. If he accepted, he would be their new head coach. If he didn't, Diaz would keep his job. Seriously.
Mario Cristobal has a deadline of midday Monday to accept the UM job, sources tell @SInow. If he declines, Manny Diaz will be retained, as @flasportsbuzz reported.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 5, 2021
Final decision on AD - where Dan Radakovich is top candidate - will be made after the coach situation is resolved.
Making things even weirder, as late as Sunday afternoon, Cristobal was still doing interviews about Oregon's bowl game matchup with Oklahoma (which also has an interim head coach after getting it was basically ghosted by Lincoln Riley).
the crazy part is, this might not even be the wildest or clunkiest coaching transition we've seen even in the past week as Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly left a legitimate playoff contender out of the blue to become the next head coach at LSU.
In this case, as at least the regular season is over!
Mario Crisobal Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Manny Diaz Photo: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
Source: @petethamel
