Posts Tagged ‘Mario Cristobal’
No. 70: Florida International
By Paul Myerberg // Jun 22, 2011
It was a season of firsts. First non-losing season. First winning season. First year scoring more than 300 points. First year scoring more points than the opposition while on the F.B.S. level. First year with more than three wins in conference play. First winning record during conference play. First conference championship. First bowl game. First bowl win. First year worth writing home about. First, first, first, first. Next up: first year with sizable expectations. As Florida International will soon discover, it’s one thing to do it once; it’s another thing to do it again.
Tags: Florida International, Geoff Collins, Jonathan Cyprien, Mario Cristobal, Sun Belt, T.Y. Hilton, Todd Orlando, Tourek Williams, Wesley Carroll
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Hats Off to F.I.U. and Cristobal
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 28, 2010
The highway markers on the road towards respectability include moments like the first win, the first conference win, the first win against a non-conference foe, first bowl trip and finally, that elusive first bowl win. Florida International’s took the slow lane towards a bowl first, passing eight seasons without posting a winning season — let alone winning a bowl game — but the meandering path only makes a late, palpitation-inducing Little Caesars Bowl win over Toledo all the more meaningful. Nine years into its history, F.I.U. can finally hang its hat on a successful campaign. In turn, we doff our hats at both the program and its fast-rising coach, Mario Cristobal.
Tags: Florida International, Geoff Collins, Mario Cristobal, Scott Satterfield
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F.I.U.’s Double-Edged Sword
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 26, 2010
Florida International’s rapid rise from the depths of the Sun Belt to conference champion can be tied back to the hard work — the blood, sweat and tears — put forth by fourth-year coach Mario Cristobal. That ugly start, the nine wins over three seasons, yielded this fall’s impressive result, a six-win finish that may someday be viewed as the turning point for a program with the foundation for bigger and better things in the future. The foundation is there: fertile recruiting grounds, facilities that are looking at an overhaul, a young roster and a talented coach — above all else, there’s this coach.
Tags: Florida International, Mario Cristobal
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Little Caesars Bowl: F.I.U. vs. Toledo
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 26, 2010
Are you ready for a rematch of the famed Sept. 27 encounter between Florida International and Toledo? What about the rubber game of a three-game series that has seen each team win on the other’s home turf? I can see I’ve lost you already. Let me spell this game out differently: Toledo is in year two under former Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Tim Beckman, with Beckman already having shown himself to likely be the next young MAC coach to move up to the next level; F.I.U. is one of the best stories of the 2010 college football season, the Sun Belt champions after several years of steady progress under Mario Cristobal. Does a game between two fast-rising up-and-comers on the non-B.C.S. conference level have you excited?
Tags: Archie Donald, Dan Molls, Eric Page, Florida International, Little Caesars Bowl, Mario Cristobal, T.Y. Hilton, Tim Beckman, Toledo, Toronto Smith
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2010 End-of-Year Awards: Sun Belt
By Paul Myerberg // Dec 10, 2010
Every dog has its day, as Florida International can now attest. To say that the program’s foray into the F.B.S. did not go according to plan would be an understatement: while rival Florida Atlantic had already tasted success, F.I.U. entered the 2010 season with a career winning percentage of 26.1 percent — 24 wins, 68 losses. Elsewhere, 6-6 might be a supreme disappointment; even Sun Belt foe Middle Tennessee State, the preseason favorite, must be disappointed in its .500 finish. This isn’t elsewhere, however: it’s Florida International. After going 6-6, F.I.U. breaks out the band.
Tags: Corey Robinson, Dwight Dasher, Geoff Collins, Jamari Lattimore, Mario Cristobal, Middle Tennessee State, Sun Belt, T.Y. Hilton
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Here She Comes, Miss New Jersey
By Paul Myerberg // Nov 14, 2010
The college football world we currently inhabit: Texas is 4-6, ahead of only Colorado and Kansas in the Big 12, while Florida International — the only program in the F.B.S. without at least one winning season — stands atop the Sun Belt. Yeah, the Sun Belt is no Big 12. And F.I.U. is no Texas, despite U.T.’s slide. However, when December rolls around, we might see Texas at home, licking its wounds, while F.I.U. heads to the first bowl game in program history. No, I didn’t see this coming. And you didn’t either. Yet the Golden Panthers — that’s the Florida International mascot — bombed Troy on Saturday, opening a clear path to the conference championship.
Tags: Florida International, Mario Cristobal, Texas, Troy
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No. 109: Florida International
By Paul Myerberg // May 17, 2010
F.I.U. might never win, but its fans will always have the beautiful beaches of Miami.
The overwhelming majority of the F.B.S. had the luxury of going through their respective growing pains as a program back in the early 20th century, back when the telegraph was the quickest form of communication and radio — let alone sports talk radio — was in its infancy. On the other hand, Florida International’s struggles have come in the age of 24-7 sports networks, the boom of the Internet and the birth of the fully informed fan, placing the program’s inability to climb out of the doldrums under a sizable microscope. Was the microscope even invented when Rutgers and Princeton ushered in this great game in 1869?
Tags: Florida International, Mario Cristobal
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