You think Brent Venables has it bad at Oklahoma? What about Mario Cristobal at Miami?
USC fans have taken an interest in the coaching career of Brent Venables, since he is Lincoln Riley’s replacement at Oklahoma. One can easily imagine what Trojan fans are thinking and feeling after Venables’ ship crashed upon the rocks of difficulty in Year 1 at OU.
We want to be fair to Venables. He doesn’t have his starting quarterback. He shouldn’t be unfairly or excessively judged at Oklahoma. We need to wait until he gets his recruits into the program. He could still be good, but he obviously needs to make the kinds of adjustments Lincoln Riley has made at USC. You can read our piece and get more details on Venables’ situation.
Meanwhile, another coach in his first year at a big-name program is struggling. What’s going on with Mario Cristobal at Miami? Let’s take a look:
ONE BIG DIFFERENCE
Let’s repeat the big difference between Venables and Cristobal: Cristobal has actually been a head coach before, and moreover, he has been a decent head coach — not great, but not awful.
This year at Miami, Cristobal has been awful. We can at least cut Venables some slack because he has never previously been a head coach. After this year, of course, Venables won’t have that excuse, but in 2022 alone, Cristobal has arguably done worse for that reason alone.
There are other reasons, however:
MIAMI’S QB ISN’T INJURED
Tyler Van Dyke is playing for Miami as the QB1. Oklahoma starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel is injured. True, Gabriel was hurt when Oklahoma was losing big to TCU, but still, the Sooners have lost at least one game (Texas) without their starting QB due to injury. Miami hasn’t had that particular limitation.
MIAMI’S OFFENSE WITHOUT ONE RECEIVER
Miami’s Xavier Restrepo has been injured for most of this season. He was Tyler Van Dyke’s safety valve and security blanket. An offense without its starting quarterback will understandably fall apart. That’s not ideal, but it’s logical if the QB2 isn’t very good (which it isn’t at Oklahoma). No offense should completely disintegrate the way Miami’s offense has without Restrepo. Again, Cristobal has far less of an excuse than Venables here.
QUALITY OF LOSSES
Oklahoma lost to Kansas State, TCU and Texas, three legitimate Big 12 championship contenders. Miami has lost to a Texas A&M team which lost to a not-very-good App State team (App State just got torched by Texas State!). The Canes also lost to Middle Tennessee at home by double-digits. Middle Tennessee just got wiped out by UAB. Miami lost at home to North Carolina, too. Miami’s losses are worse.
ACC COASTAL VS BIG 12
The ACC Coastal is a total mess. Virginia Tech is awful, Duke is weak, Georgia Tech was terrible before interim coach Brent Key improved the Yellow Jackets. Virginia is a disaster. Pitt is mediocre. This division is there for the taking, but Miami’s loss to North Carolina at home already puts the Canes in big trouble. Not winning this division is like the White Sox not winning this year’s American League Central. No excuse.
The Big 12 is far better than the ACC Coastal in 2022. Oklahoma’s losses under Venables aren’t nearly as much of an embarrassment.
TYLER VAN DYKE WAS GOOD LAST YEAR
Cristobal inherited a situation in which his quarterback, Van Dyke, was coming off a solid 2021 season. Cristobal could have asked Van Dyke what worked for him, but the coach instead changed offensive systems with new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, who replaced Rhett Lashlee as Miami OC when Lashlee took the open head coaching job at SMU. Cristobal clearly made a mistake by changing the offensive scheme, even though Van Dyke played well in the previous one. Adjust the scheme to the player, not vice-versa.
DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS
Miami allowed four touchdown plays of more than 65 yards against Middle Tennessee. There’s not much else one can say about that.
OFFENSIVE COLLAPSE
Venables has a disaster on defense. Cristobal has lost a game because his offense did nothing, in a 17-9 loss to Texas A&M. The Aggies have already lost three games this season. Oklahoma hasn’t endured that particular kind of misery (yet) in 2022.
OFFENSIVE LINE
One of Mario Cristobal’s calling cards is cultivating offensive line play. Injuries have existed at Miami, but the Canes were struggling on offense before some of these injuries hit. Cristobal not getting the O-line up to par is a real surprise.
COACHING STAFFS
Cristobal, if we are going to compare coaching staffs, hired higher-end, bigger-name assistants than Brent Venables. He got Josh Gattis from Michigan. Gattis made the College Football Playoff under Jim Harbaugh last year. He brought aboard former national championship defensive coordinator Charlie Strong. Those are bigger hires than Venables’ coordinators, Ted Roof (defense) and Jeff Lebby (offense). This is another reason to view Cristobal as more disappointing than Venables.
THE BIG REMINDER
Anthony Brown had a great preseason with the Baltimore Ravens, reminding us that Cristobal has limited the growth and development of his quarterbacks. At Oregon, he did not allow Justin Herbert to show the full range of his talents. This is a real issue and a real problem with Cristobal. If he wants to make Miami great again, he has to look in the mirror. Venables does not have this problem.
MORE NOTES
PASS PLAYS IN PERSPECTIVE
THAT KIND OF SEASON
ALSO THIS
THIS WAS LATE IN THE THIRD QUARTER FROM SATURDAY
A FINAL THOUGHT
Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire
