I want the guy I wanted when Randy left and I think he would be a better choice today than he would have been then; Mario Cristobal.
Yes, things did fall apart for him after early success as a HC at FIU (which coincidentally began after he turned down the Rutgers job) but his time under Sabah since then has had to have taught him some things. Between his time playing for Errikson's Hurricanes, coaching for Jones's Hurricanes and coaching for Saban's Tide, he has been around and part of what can be argued as the best of the best, ever, for three different stretches.
He has worked in the Northeast (spent a few years at Penn St), knows offensive line play (was a starter on multiple national title teams and coached multiple national title teams' offensive lines) which may be our most critical need, unlike many of his U Miami contemporaries, he has always been a high quality, high character guy and he would help reopen recruiting channels in southern Florida (in short time we could see more success here than we ever had).
Additionally, he is the type of person who would prefer a career job, one he can put his stamp on and own for the remainder of his career Joe Pa, pre scandal was among his heroes and there is little that he would prefer above being that guy, the guy who built it from scratch, at a program that is competing for titles regularly (showing that we could have that level of commitment may be our biggest challenge but let's face it, what we need is a football version of In Calhoun circa 1986.
Yes, he did run into some difficulty (after early success) at FIU. There are a few quality coaches who did not succeed and only succeed from day one. The exposure he has had since then can be viewed almost as graduate level HC training.
