The National Championship has seen many coaches win the title, but it has rarely been won by someone with roots from other countries. Mario Cristobal, who is of Latino heritage, is one more addition to this mix. He will attempt to create history by winning the 2025 National Championship as someone who comes from an immigrant family. Cristobal’s journey begins in a troubled Cuba, where his family made the ultimate sacrifice.

What is Mario Cristobal’s background and Cuban heritage?

Mario Cristobal is a Cuban-American and was born to Luis and Clara Cristobal. He grew up in Coral Terrace, a Miami neighborhood dominated by Cuban immigrant families. Like most of them, Luis, Clara, and her father, Mario Campos, fled the Castro regime for a better and safer life in America. Mario was born in 1970, 3 years after the move.

The couple worked tirelessly to give Mario the opportunities that brought him where he is today. Luis Cristobal ran a car battery store in Hialeah, while Clara worked for Kendall Toyota as a title processor. According to Mario, they worked two jobs and took night classes to learn English. They prided themselves on their Cuban work ethic and worked well into their 70s. Mario took to those ideals naturally when he began coaching.

“They made sure we understood the meaning of true work and to make absolutely zero excuses,” Cristobal said at a presser ahead of the National Championship. “They were absolutely relentless in their pursuit of just doing everything they could to provide for us.”

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Mario Cristobal played high school football at the local Christopher Columbus High School under veteran coach Dennis Lavelle. Here, he played with Fernando Mendoza Sr.—the Indiana QB’s father—and Alex Mirabal, the Hurricanes’ O-line coach. Lavelle described them as the “kind of kids that you get out of bed in the morning to coach and teach.” Cristobal’s prep career ultimately earned him a scholarship from Miami, fulfilling a big dream of the family that came to a foreign land with nothing.

Unfortunately, neither of Mario Cristobal’s parents will be there to witness their son come full circle, coaching Miami in the National Championship. But he still cherishes the lessons he learned from his family’s struggles and values, which continue to power him in his mission.

Has a coach of Cuban descent ever won a College Football National Championship?

No, a Latino head coach has never won the National Championship. If Mario Cristobal wins the coveted title, he will be the first such coach to do it.

However, he is the first Cuban-American head coach to be a part of the FBS. Cristobal achieved this feat when he became head coach for the FIU Owls.

How close has Mario Cristobal come to winning a National Championship?

The 2025 National Championship will be the first time that Mario Cristobal has ever made an appearance in the title game as head coach. This is the closest he’s come to winning it all, after a terrific 12-2 season. But as an assistant coach to the legendary Nick Saban, Cristobal won a National Championship in 2015. But the coach’s patient rise to where he is today in college football is what makes the upcoming appearance a little more special.

Cristobal began his journey as Miami’s head coach in 2022 and hauled in a tough losing season. Forget the playoffs; the Hurricanes didn’t even get to play a bowl game. But Cristobal persevered. He went up to 7-6 the next year, which was marred by a late-season losing streak.

2024 could have been Miami’s year, especially because it had the following draft’s No. 1 pick, Cam Ward. Cristobal pressed on the gas and got some good players on board as well. However, the playoff rules change dented his hopes of making it to the National Championship. The Hurricanes missed out on a spot in the final 12 by losing to unranked ACC teams, despite having a 10-2 record. Plus, most of their wins were extremely close.

Mario Cristobal began seeing success in title games as a head coach during his FIU days. He won one Sun Belt Conference Championship with the Owl and two back-to-back Pac-12 titles with Oregon. However, the ACC championship has been out of reach for him. Maybe next year, he will finally get his hands on it.

What would a National Title mean for Cristobal and Cuban representation in College Football?

Cristobal has stressed that he is more concerned about helping his team in the title game than any other fact. But if he does win the National Championship, Cristobal will not just be scripting history as the first Cuban-American coach to do so. The victory represents what every Cuban-American family aspires to make of their lives in America.

Cristobal’s father and maternal grandfather didn’t just toil away in work—they were prisoners in the Castro regime in Cuba. Mario Campos actually comes from a poor farming family. He worked 26 years with the national police but was sent to jail for being a member of the Batista government. Luis Cristobal was a young government staffer in Cuba and was tortured repeatedly in prison. He spent two years there and came close to losing his life to firing squads.

Things were not easy when he came to America in the 1960s, as businesses did not hire Cubans. Campos worked hard as a dishwasher and opened a construction company on his own. Struggle made up the majority of the Cristobals’ time in America, as is the norm for every immigrant family in the country. Surviving a brutal regime in their homeland was a victory, but they had to start from scratch to rebuild their lives here. Mario Cristobal’s story is what success means to these families.

This is a saga that has roots in hardship and has a chance to culminate in something momentous for Mario Cristobal. That won’t just be because he’s a coach, but as a mark of honor for everything his family gave him.