The Oregon Ducks (10-2) and Utah Utes (9-3) are vying for the 2021 Pac-12 Football Championship in Las Vegas. Coach Kyle Whittingham, the all-time leader in wins at Utah, will face Oregon coach Mario Cristobal. Prior to becoming a coach, in 1998, Mario played college football at the University of Miami, where he was an all-conference offensive tackle on the Miami Hurricanes football team that won national championships in 1989 and 1991. The four-year letterman played for Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson.
Story goes that while a first-year graduate assistant at Miami, Cristobal went through a two-year application process to become a U.S. Secret Service agent and was offered a job in 1998. According to The Oregonian, Cristolbal was set to join the federal government agency and “even said his goodbyes to his Hurricanes players before changing his mind the next morning and deciding to stick with coaching.”
Ty Wise, a starting center on the 1998 Hurricanes team remembers: “The rumor was he was going to go into that because I guess he’s off-the-charts intelligent.” Wise added: “When he came back, we were all kind of fired up.”
As seen in the post and video above, many Miami fans are hoping Mario will return to his alma mater as head coach!
ABC is broadcasting the 2021 Pac-12 Football Championship Live on Friday, December 3 at 8 pm ET.
