Miami slipped to a 4-2 record, and glimpses of last year's 5-7 struggles have come in a flurry of flashbacks for Hurricane fans.

Is it time to panic? Or should the Mario Cristobal process just be trusted? History favors the latter. Let's look at the headman at Miami's track record for success.

Records

2007: 1-11

2008: 5-7

2009: 3-9

2010: 7-6 (Bowl Win; Share of Conference Title)

2011: 8-5 (Bowl Loss)

2012: 3-9

Cristobal left Miami as an assistant in 2007 to take his first head coaching job; it was a struggle his first season. He entered a program that was 0-35 (eight vacated wins) in the four seasons before his arrival. It was a project (much like Miami), to say the least.

It took two years, but Cristobal was able to make the Panthers respectable in the FBS ranks. He gave the program its first winning season in school history and won the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. He followed that up with an eight-win season and second consecutive bowl bid before a dip in 2012 and subsequent fallout with the administration.

The proof, on a smaller scale, is in the pudding here. Cristobal took a rebuild, flipped the talent on the roster - had four players selected in the NFL Draft from 2011-2013 - and built a winner after a few seasons.

Records

2018: 9-4 (Bowl Win)

2019: 12-2 (Bowl Win; Conference Title)

2020: 4-3 (Bowl Win; Conference Title)

2021: 10-3

You cannot just look at the first season record for Cristobal as an indication of his process at Oregon. Cristobal came to Eugene after a 4-8 campaign in 2016, where the wheels fell off after eight straight seasons of nine wins or more, including two national championship appearances.

As the co-offensive coordinator, Cristobal was a core piece of the Oregon rebuild after the drastic fallout credited to ousted head coach Mark Helfrich. The first year there, Oregon went 7-6 but was still struggling, losing five of their last eight games, and was ranked just one week the entire season.

Cristobal was handed the reigns after an exit from Willie Taggart to FSU, and he was off to the races after a season of culture changes that he directly had his hands on. In recruiting, they went from 18 to 13 to three straight top ten rankings, including a top three finish in 2021.

Overall, 12 Ducks were drafted that were recruited by Cristobal (2021 to 2023 drafts), proving an overall increase in roster quality and recruiting prowess during his time in Eugene.

With Cristobal, there is no immediate success with his process. Microwave coaches like USC's Lincoln Riley or TCU's Sonny Dykes bring immediate success due to significant scheme change that relays to wins during the regular season but rarely a total program overhaul that leads to title success.

Cristobal came to Miami working to resurrect a program irrelevant from a winning perspective for almost 20 years—two decades of ineptitude and failures from five different head coaches forced a total rebuild - something more similar to FIU than Oregon.

The process is working, though. Through the mid-point of the season, Miami is already about to pass his win total from last season and still on pace to finish with a chance at a bowl game - something Miami has not won since 2016 and just once since 2006.

Also, Miami has three top 50 commits in this class, giving him nine over the last two years and 39 total blue-chip commits or signees since 2022. That is proof that the brand is building, that elite talent is seeing the vision, and that progress is in place.

No plan was going to redeem Miami right away. The roster was not ready to compete, the trenches on both sides of the ball were falling, and a tradition of winning was so far away that none of the current players in the program were born the last time Miami was in championship contention.

The 4-2 record is waves better than last year's, and trusting the Cristobal process is proven to be the plan that Miami needs to get back to the old days.

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