In early December of 2012, Florida International announced the firing of their head football coach, Mario Cristobal, whose Panthers turned in a bitterly disappointing 3-9 season, finishing next to last in the Sun Belt. Cristobal wasn’t wild about his dismissal.

“We did a lot of good thing,” stated Cristobal, who had coached the Panthers for six seasons. “We graduated kids. We sent kids to the NFL. We turned a lot of things around. We had one bad year.”

He had a point. In 2006, Cristobal took over an FIU team that had gone winless in the previous season. By 2010, the Cuban-American known for his fine recruiting guided the Panthers to a 7-6 record, its first (and only ) Sun Belt title (shared with Troy). The program would also win its first ever bowl game – a 34-32 win over Toledo. FIU signed Cristobal to a four year extension over the summer.

Cristobal entered 2011 a hot name in coaching circles – a young up-and-comer who had seemingly worked a miracle in Miami. The 2011 season proved to be his best at FIU, starting the season with wins over UCF, North Texas and a big brand upset over Louisville. His name would be bandied in coaching searches for Pitt and Rutgers (he reportedly turned down Rutgers to stay in Miami). FIU finished 8-5 for the season and third in the SBC behind Arkansas State and Western Kentucky and would lose to Marshall in the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl.

Everything went to hell for Mario Cristobal and the FIU Panthers in 2012. The team started the season losing seven of eight, including a one TD loss to Louisville. The Panthers would win two of its last three, but FIU brass had wanted much more. Athletic director Pete Garcia had expected the Panthers to compete for a Top 25 designation, and called the season “a total collapse.” Cristobal was unceremoniously fired, and he would later accept a tight ends coaching job with Miami before bolting to Alabama just a month later. In 2017, he accepted a head coaching role in Oregon.

Curt Cignetti left the Sun Belt and James Madison on his own terms, unofficially winning the Sun Belt East twice before accepting the big man job at Indiana in 2022, a decade after Cristobal’s departure. We’ve already reminisced on Cignetti’s Sun Belt tenure – a burst of domination marked by Cignettt’s trademark self confidence. There are some similarities to the men. Both spent time as Alabama assistants under Nick Saban. Both played college ball on East coast (Cristobal as a lineman in Miami, Cignetti a quarterback at West Virginia). Both are able recruiters.

But for the purpose of this article, their common bond is their association with the Sun Belt. If anybody wants to refer to the NCAA College Football Playoff Finals as “The Sun Belt Bowl,” I’ll happily sign off on it.

IMAGE: FIU Athletic Department, 2007