Pete Thamel Compares Top College Football Head Coach To Bill Self At Kansas

On Friday's episode of the ESPN "College GameDay" podcast, Ryan McGee, Stanford Steve and Pete Thamel joined together to offer their prognostications on the loaded Labor Day weekend slate ahead.

Of course, the guys touched on various spotlight games, including a renewed rivalry in the Sunshine State. That's where Pete Thamel stepped in to draw an unexpected comparison to one head coach involved in the Miami at Florida game, believing 2024 could be the year for an explosion.

"I am going to take Miami and I'm going to take Miami on the college basketball principle," Thamel said, capturing everyone's ears.

"Mario Christobal is entering like early-2000s Jim Boeheim and late-2000s Bill Self," he added. "He's had a lot of good teams and sometimes the coaching has undercut the talent, right? The Georgia Tech example. We saw this at Oregon."

We'll evaluate that Self comparison in a minute, but Thamel continued, noting that folks are caught up in Cristobal's track record when they should focus on the roster.

"I think at this point, if you're picking against Miami because of Mario Cristobal, you are overstating the factor of coaching," said Thamel. "Mario Cristobal is a good college football coach who has not broken through, but I feel like the talent level is at a place in Miami that it can overcome some of those shortcomings."

Cristobal could find breakout success, but Bill Self? Late 2000s Bill Self especially? He was one of the best coaches in the country and didn't lose 10 games in a single season until year 14 at Kansas. He also won 14 consecutive Big 12 regular season titles, many of which in the 2000s.

Bill Self coached three different programs over the 2000s decade — Kansas, Illinois and Tulsa — yet never finished below No. 20 in the final AP Poll in any season, and his Jayhawks were obviously No. 1 following 2008's national title.

If that's the path Thamel sees for Cristobal, Miami fans ought to be ecstatic. But only time will tell whether the talent influx is enough to finally push the Hurricanes back into the national conversation.

All Miami needs to worry about right now is justifying their harboring of the Seminole war canoe. If you know, you know .

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