Money Still Can't Buy Close-Game Common Sense for these 5 High-Priced Coaches

SI - First Quarter: All that money, all that staff, all those analytics … How are coaches still flunking close-game logic?

Mario Cristobal (1)—yeah, you knew we were starting with him—is being paid $8 million to coach Miami this season. The football staff directory on the athletic website lists 70 people below Cristobal’s name. There are the usual 10 full-time assistants, plus 16 analysts and four grad assistants. There are three analysts for special teams alone. There is a general manager of football operations, an executive director of football, an executive director of football recruiting, a senior football advisor, several directors of player personnel, a vast recruiting operations staff—on and on it goes.....

Marcus Freeman (2), of course, had the two-play, 10-men debacle for Notre Dame against Ohio State on Sept. 23. Freeman also did himself and his team no favors Saturday night in Louisville by having the Fighting Irish offense go for a fourth-and-11 on their own 35 with nearly 10 minutes remaining, down 11 points. That was a panic move that led to a Louisville field goal, on the way to a 33–20 Cardinals victory.....

Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz (3) had his own visit to the fourth-down panic room, going for a fourth-and-32 down three points to LSU with 1:15 left and all three timeouts. Punting, playing defense, using timeouts and getting the ball back for cannon-legged kicker Harrison Mevis seemed like an option, but Drink went for it, got half the yardage, ran nine seconds off the clock and gave LSU the ball in Missouri territory. LSU didn’t move, but it did punt it down to the Mizzou 5-yard line, whereupon Brady Cook threw a pick six that effectively ended the game.....

Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher (4), a $9 million man with a buyout larger than the gross national product of some third-world nations, burned a timeout before kicking a 20-yard field goal late in the game against Alabama. The Aggies could have taken a delay of game and made it a 25-yard field goal without a problem; instead they used a timeout they desperately needed, and Alabama was able to kill the clock on the next possession.....

But the guy who is really thankful for Cristobal today is Lincoln Riley (5). USC’s $10 million man tried to pull a Mario at the end of regulation against Arizona Saturday, but ultimately having Caleb Williams was enough to save the night and keep the Trojans undefeated.....


TTT - Kelly wasn't mentioned and he's been in some real barn-burners, one nearly every week, and neither was Saban. There's a reason for that, they pass the IQ test.

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