Mario Cristobal’s recruiting hot streak is painful to watch next to Mike Norvell’s struggles

Step 1 to Mario Cristobal reestablishing The U as a college football powerhouse was getting the money right in Miami. Now that the NIL operation in Coral Gables is humming, Cristobal can put his recruiting acumen to work. The 2026 class finished No. 9 overall, and the 2027 group is trending even better, currently No. 3 in the country with 18 commits. 

The latest recruit to join that group is five-star EDGE Jaiden Bryant, who flipped from LSU to the Hurricanes, becoming the program’s fourth five-star in the 2027 class so far. That news came the same week as Florida State’s top recruit, four-star safety Mekhi Williams' flip to Wisconsin. Just to make the news sting a little bit worse. 

Cristobal is coming off a trip to the national championship game and is working on the best recruiting haul of his career. Not only aided by his NIL management, but also by the ACC awarding 100 percent of the CFP performance payouts to the program that earned them. That means an extra $14 million came Miami’s way for their CFP run last season, while FSU is reportedly getting outspent by Louisville. 

Mario Cristobal has Miami locked and loaded for a run of ACC dominance

Few programs miscalculated the direction of college football in the NIL era worse than Florida State. The program was slow to embrace the all-out fundraising push it takes to build a championship roster while burying itself in debt with a massive renovation to Doak Campbell Stadium. FSU will preach that correcting that mistake is akin to turning an oil tanker, and that may be true with Mike Norvell at the helm. Virginia Tech, with its sudden influx of cash, has proven, however, that a new coach can quickly galvanize a dormant donor base. 

Step 1 of that process would be moving on from Norvell, which is costly in its own right. Step 2 would be to hire the new coach to excite and whip up the boosters, but even then, it could be a few years before FSU catches up to what Cristobal is building at Miami. 

Maybe Virginia Tech is the team that jumps up out of nowhere to challenge the Hurricanes for ACC supremacy, which I guess they haven’t technically established because Duke is the reigning conference champion. But other than the Hokies under James Franklin’s leadership, which is still a real question mark, there isn’t a clear challenger. Clemson has faded away as Dabo Swinney stubbornly swims against the NIL and Transfer Portal tide, and nobody else has the capacity to spend like Miami, at least nobody has shown it to this point. 

So, on top of Florida State entering another season that feels DOA after winning just seven games over the last two years, its biggest conference rival is riding high off a title game run and recruiting like it’s the old days.

Oh, and then there’s Florida, which is loading up under Jon Sumrall, who, even if he isn’t the next coming of Steve Spurrier, can’t possibly do less with elite talent than Billy Napier did in Gainesville.

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