The buzz around Mario Cristobal potentially making a jump to the NFL has picked up steam in recent days-but not everyone’s buying it. In fact, if you ask Miami sports insiders, the idea of Cristobal trading in his Hurricanes whistle for an NFL headset sounds more like a stretch than a serious possibility.
Dan Le Batard, a Miami native and longtime voice in the sports media world, made his stance crystal clear on his show. The former Miami Herald columnist and University of Miami alumnus didn’t hold back when the topic came up, especially after NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger floated the idea that the Pittsburgh Steelers were interested in Cristobal.
Baldinger’s take? He liked what he saw from Cristobal during a spring practice and said the Hurricanes’ head coach reminded him of old-school NFL coaching.
That, in Baldinger’s eyes, made Cristobal a potential fit for the pros. But when he went a step further and suggested he’d heard the Steelers were intrigued, that’s when Le Batard pumped the brakes-hard.
"You are doing that reporting and that nonsense. The sourcing is flimsy on that. It's just Baldinger saying it with his crooked finger," Le Batard said during the broadcast.
And he wasn’t alone. His on-air producer, Chris Cote, chimed in with a line that’s been echoed by a lot of folks around the Miami program: “Mario Cristobal is the most college and not NFL coach there is.”
That sentiment isn’t just about Cristobal’s resume-it’s about his coaching style, his personality, and the way he connects with college players. Cristobal is a hands-on, detail-obsessed recruiter who thrives in the college football ecosystem.
He’s not just building a football team at Miami; he’s rebuilding a culture. That’s not the type of work you walk away from lightly, especially not when your fingerprints are all over the program’s foundation.
And let’s be honest: the NFL is a different animal. The college game is about development, recruiting, and relationships.
The NFL is about managing egos, navigating front office politics, and surviving a results-driven business where patience is scarce. Cristobal’s style-intense, developmental, rooted in college traditions-doesn’t scream “NFL-ready” right now.
That’s not to say it couldn’t happen someday. NFL teams have made stranger hires, and Cristobal’s name carries weight in coaching circles.
But right now? With Miami still in the thick of a major rebuild and Cristobal locked in on pushing the Hurricanes back into College Football Playoff contention?
The timing just doesn’t add up.
So while the rumor mill keeps churning, don’t expect Cristobal to be walking NFL sidelines anytime soon. For now, he’s all-in on Miami-and based on everything we’ve seen and heard, that’s exactly where he wants to be.