For a third outside candidate, we have TCU defensive coordinator Andy Avalos. Avalos has some realtions to Mario Cristobal. Avalos worked with Cristobal while he was the head coach at Oregon. Avalos has been around the college coaching ranks ever since his playing days at Boise State were over after 2004.
He's been to stops at Georgia, D2 Nebraska-Kearny, and Sacramento State before returning to his alma mater in 2012. From 2012 to 2019, Avalos took on mutliple defensive coaching roles with the Broncos. he first started as a defensive line coach before taking over the linebacker duties. By 2016, Avalos became the DC and after 2018, took his role to Eugene with Cristobal instilled as the head coach.
In 2019, Avalos took a unit that ranked seventh in the PAC-12 in yards allowed and boosted them to second in the conference in that statistic. Oregon won the PAC-12 that year and defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. In a condensed 7-game 2020 season, Oregon was still fifth in the conference for yards allowed. In 2021, Avalos became the head coach of Boise State and has a short three-year run at the position, going 22-14. After getting fired, he became TCU's defensive coordinator this year.
In his lone season as TCU's defensive coordinator, the Horned Frogs saw a great improvement from that unit. This season, TCU rose from 79th to 62nd in scoring defense, nationally. The defense also saw a big and positive adjustment in yards allowed per game. After ranking 103rd in the nation in 2023 for that statistic, the Horned Frogs rose to just inside the top 50.
Now, there is no doubt that having the Miami job can be more profittable and rewarding than the TCU job. It is possible that Avalos is swayed to leave his position in Fort Worth to reunite with Cristobal. After all, they did win two PAC-12 Championships together. However, there has been no word of Avalos becoming a major candidate to replace Lance Guidry. Also, Avalos is just going into the second season of a five-year pact that pays him just under $8 million.
There wouldn't be much reason for Avalos to leave TCU to head over to Coral Gables. However, it could be done and it is a realistic possibility, especially if Miami throws more money towards him. They have the money to do so, let alone any other resources that Miami has over TCU. Throwing his name in here might be a stretch to many. However, in this current era of money being tied with collegiate athletics, who's to say this can't be done. Also, again, the two have history with each other.