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| Mario Cristobal | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Title | Head coach | |
| College | Florida International University | |
| Sport | Football | |
| Conference | SBC | |
| Team record | 6-18-0 | |
| Born | September 25, 1970 | |
| Place of birth | Miami, Florida | |
| Annual salary | $390,000 | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 6-18-0 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Playing career | ||
| 1989-1992 | Miami | |
| Position | Tackle | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1998-2000 2001-2003 2004-2006 2007-present |
Miami (Graduate Assistant) Rutgers (Assistant Coach) Miami (Assistant Coach) FIU |
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Mario Manuel Cristobal (born September 24, 1970 in Miami, Florida) is a college football head coach and former player who is the current head coach of the Florida International University football team. He is also the first Cuban-American Head Football coach.
Contents |
Playing career
College
Cristobal was a four-year letterman with the University of Miami Hurricanes football team between 1989-1992. During this time Cristobal was a member of the Hurricanes 1989 and 1991 national championship teams and in 1992 earned First-Team All-Big East Conference as an offensive tackle.
Professional
After graduating from Miami in 1993, Cristobal was signed by the Denver Broncos in 1994 as an undrafted free agent playing only in the preseason. He then went on to join the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe for the 1995 and 1996 seasons before retiring to pursue coaching.
Coaching career
University of Miami and Rutgers University
Prior to being name FIU head coach Cristobal spent the two stints at Miami, between 1998-2000 and 2004-2006, as a graduate assistant, tight ends coach and offensive line coach. During 2001-2003, Cristobal was a tight ends and offensive line coach at Rutgers University under Greg Schiano.
Florida International University
On December 19, 2006, Cristobal was named the second head coach in FIU's history and will coach the team beginning in the 2007 season. Having worked as an assistant at Rutgers during their transformation to a competitive program in the Big East, Cristobal is now charged with leading a Golden Panther team that finished the 2006 season 0-12.
For his first months of work at FIU, Cristobal has implemented a spread offense [1], and expects FIU to achieve success "faster than what we did at Rutgers", a process which "took five years." [2]
His first season, however, was anything but successful. FIU struggled for most of the season, losing their first eleven games. However, on December 1, the Golden Panthers finally broke a Football Bowl Subdivision leading 23-game losing skid with a 38-19 victory over North Texas.
His second season showed definite signs of improvement. After three back-to-back, out-of-conference losses to Kansas, Iowa and USF, the Golden Panthers under Cristobal pulled together an upset win against MAC opponents Toledo. The team used this momentum to build a three game winning streak, defeating Sun Belt Conference opponents North Texas and MTSU before it continued on to finish with a 5-7 record. The team was two wins away from a bowl game before falling out of contention in the 2008 Shula Bowl against in-state rivals FAU in a 57-50 OT loss, before finishing its season with an at-home victory over Western Kentucky.
Cristobal carries a reputation of being an excellent recruiter, setting up for his third season at FIU by putting together an impressive recruiting class of 23 student athletes, at least 20 of them from Florida. [3] He wears a customary shirt and tie along with dress pants for each and every game to honor his idol, Joe Paterno. He was also named the fittest coach currently in the FBS according to an ESPN blog to which he confirmed on The Dan Le Batard Show on May 29th, 2009. [4]
External links
| Preceded by Don Strock |
Florida International University Head Football Coach 2007– |
Succeeded by current |
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