Mario Cristobal Claps Back At Bret Bielema's Petty Miami Hurricanes Post
Bret Bielema is clearly not happy that the University of Miami landed the top two high school prospects in the state of Illinois.
The Hurricanes signed both 5-star defensive tackle Justin Scott and 5-star EDGE Marquise Lightfoot out of Chicago high schools in the class of 2024. They were the two top rated players from The Prairie State.
Bielema, head coach of the Fighting Illini, seemingly took a shot at Miami's official NIL Collective, Canes Connection. The collective put out an X post on Sunday welcoming Lightfoot to the family after he signed his inaugural NIL deal.
Bielema quoted the post, saying, "yes please send me a brochure would love to see how this works," with two shrug emojis and a football emoji.
Most are interpreting this as a shot against Miami's successful NIL efforts, but I also wonder if he could be challenging Illinois' own NIL deficiencies. Either way, bringing negative attention to a tweet initially written about Lightfoot comes off very petty for the former Wisconsin and Arkansas coach.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal clapped back. His response to a post about the Hurricanes landing the top two players in Illinois with the caption, "My kind of brochure..."
Perhaps Bielema should focus on the struggles inside his own program after a losing season, rather than taking shots at Miami. It's worth noting that had either of Lightfoot or Scott not chosen the Hurricanes, Ohio State, NOT Illinois, was the clear runner-up for both of them.
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