STATE OF FOOTBALL: Mario Cristobal battles through the What-Ifs and returns to Miami

If FSU hadn’t been Willie Taggart’s dream job, Manny Diaz might still be head coach of the Miami Hurricanes.

Huh?

The “what if?” game could be played all day regarding college football coaches and how their decisions and desires changed the course of history.

The best modern “what if” obviously involves Rich Rodriguez. In December 2006, he was a hot ticket and was offered the head-coaching job at Alabama but instead remained at West Virginia, his alma mater. That 'Bama job went to You Know Who and we see how “leftovers” worked for the Tide.

But currently, the courses of history are finding forks in the road daily, it seems, with Miami’s hiring of Mario Cristobal — and the subsequent dismissal of Diaz — being the latest headline maker.

What if: Cristobal hadn’t been fired at FIU after the 2012 season?

The Miami native had taken over a highly troubled program in 2007 and by Year 4 had the Panthers winning most of their games and going to two straight bowls. Year 6 turned south and he was let go.

Firing a well-liked local created some bad feelings, but it became a blessing when Cristobal immediately began a four-year run as an upper-level assistant at Alabama before joining Willie Taggart’s new Oregon staff in 2017.

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What if: Chip Kelly hadn’t hired his friend Jeff Stoutland to be the Eagles’ offensive line coach in 2013?

Stoutland coached Nick Saban’s linemen in 2011-12, but was lured to the NFL when Kelly took over the Eagles in ’13, creating the job opening in Tuscaloosa that was filled by Cristobal.

What if: Willie Taggart hadn’t grown up a Florida State Seminole fan?

Taggart parlayed his success at South Florida into the top job at Oregon in 2017, but when Jimbo Fisher and FSU broke up a year later, Taggart jumped at the chance to return to his home state and his “dream job.” Oregon quickly filled its vacancy by promoting Cristobal to head coach.

What if: Cristobal hadn’t largely succeeded at Oregon?

Well, we wouldn’t be bothering with this, would we?

Finally, what if this doesn’t work for Cristobal and the Hurricanes? Well, if that happens, we’ll turn to another popular parlor game: Second-guessing.

Miami is Cristobal’s hometown, where family still lives, and UM is where he played college football back in the school’s glory days. Prominent alumni — including former players — were pushing for this, thinking Cristobal is the guy to return Miami to relevance.

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The rest of us wonder. Take away the hometown and family angle, and this seems like a questionable move, because the resources at Oregon seem much more conducive to championship contending than those at Miami, at least from all the chatter you hear about organizational “support” in Coral Gables.

But you can’t measure the lure of an alma mater, hometown and family. And right now, they're all saying all the right things about doing whatever it takes to return the 'Canes to something beyond the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl.

Oh, whatever happened to Rich Rodriguez? After turning down Alabama in 2006, he spent one more season at WVU before leaving for greener pastures that turned brown. But, whaddaya know, he finally made it to Alabama as head coach.

Yep, this past week, he was hired to coach the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

Rank & File

Actually, no rank, just file — an alphabetical tour through the campuses of our Pigskinned Peninsula …

FAU (5-7): Willie Taggart has reportedly said goodbye to three assistants, which seems about right after losing four straight to end the year. For insult to injury, the C-USA all-conference team included zero Owls on either the first or second team.

FIU (1-11): After Butch Davis’ blistering going-away critique about the Panthers’ lack of institutional support, you might think it’d be difficult to find a willing applicant for the open coaching position. Not true, apparently, but this time expect FIU to go with a young (and cheap) up-and-comer instead of a lion in winter.

Florida (6-6): This means nothing, but dating back to 1990, here’s the collegiate position breakdown of the Gators’ head coaches. Quarterback: Steve Spurrier, Jim McElwain, Billy Napier. Defensive back: Ron Zook, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp. Tight end: Dan Mullen. Take this info and do what you will.

FSU (5-7): The Seminoles won the national championship in women’s soccer this week. It’s their third in the past eight seasons and equals the three national championships in football. Remember when FSU was a football school?

Miami (7-5): “We are the ‘U,’ we are Miami,” Mario Cristobal said up returning to Coral Gables. “Every time you hear that, every time you see that in a commercial, on a shirt, at a game, that’s got to mean something and we got to show it in everything that we do.” It’s been 18 years (18!) since Miami last won a conference title, and that was in the old Big East. Oh, and they shared it with West Virginia.

UCF (8-4): That three-game agreement between the Knights and Gators wasn’t supposed to start until 2024. Who had the two schools meeting before that in the Gasparilla Bowl? That’s what I thought.

USF (2-10): Big news, the Bulls have hired Bob Stoops as new defensive coordinator. This is quite a hire for … oh, wait … hold the phone … being told they actually hired Bob Shoop, who brings 33 years of coaching experience to a job where he’ll need all that and more.

Sunday School

Jacksonville (2-10) at Tennessee (8-4): Don’t look now, but the Jags might be “playing” their way into another No. 1 draft pick. With last Sunday’s drubbing in L.A., the Jags have now lost 15 straight against NFC teams. After this week, the Jags get back-to-back games with the Texans and Jets, so there may be some bright moments to come. But first things first — Titans 26, Jags 12.

Buffalo (7-5) at Tampa Bay (9-3): The old theory here says true Super Bowl contenders never lose two straight. And the Bills lost last week. And four other times this season, though never twice in a row. Now they’re playing the defending champs, who actually did lose two straight several weeks ago. Bills are another loss away from pressing for a wild-card berth, and we’re big on desperation here — Bills 31, Bucs 27.

Miami (6-7), bye week: Center Michael Deiter returned Sunday after missing nine games due to injury. He noticed a very different Tua Tagovailoa, which surfaced after a TD pass to Isaiah Ford. Actually, it was during the pass. "When he released the ball, he put his hands up," Deiter told the Palm Beach Post. "I don’t know if anyone noticed that but it was not caught yet and he was like, ‘that’s a touchdown.’ I think that's a little bit of confidence and swagger.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Cristobal navigated forks in road for Miami return | STATE OF FOOTBALL