For the second time in two months, Miami native and FIU head football coach Mario Cristobal turned down the prospect of bigger money and the Big East to stay in West Dade.

Rutgers University, where Cristobal had been an assistant from 2001-03 under Greg Schiano, was on the verge of announcing his hiring as their head football coach, had Cristobal at the top of their list to replace Schiano Monday morning. By Monday afternoon, Rutgers had been informed Cristobal would remain at FIU.

“I’m very happy Mario decided to stay,” FIU athletic director Pete Garcia said. “I agree with him that he’s building something special here.”

Cristobal’s played (Amsterdam of the defunct NFL Europe) and coached elsewhere (Rutgers), but his life path shows a psychological bungee tether to Miami. Cristobal was raised in Miami, graduated from Columbus High School a couple of miles from FIU; played, coached, earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at the University of Miami; and has been FIU’s head coach for five seasons.

Much of Cristobal’s extended family remains in South Florida. Cristobal lives in Miami Beach with his wife and two toddler-aged sons.

Cristobal also has a program that’s gone from a 23-game losing streak to its first two winning seasons in Division I, gone to the school’s first two bowl games the last two years and shared the Sun Belt title in 2010. For next season, the Panthers return eight of 11 starters on offense and all 11 starters on a defense that ranked in the Top 20 in scoring defense. Plus, FIU’s 2012 recruiting class looks like easily its strongest ever.

A Newark Star-Ledger report Monday night stated that Rutgers will now hire interim coach and longtime Rutgers assistant Kyle Flood as Schiano’s replacement.

Pitt’s still in the Big East until its move to the Atlantic Coast Conference. That’s where Cristobal would be had he been as ardent about Pitt as the Panthers were about him in December. Instead, Cristobal began talking with FIU about another extension – and talks on that continue – and Pitt hired Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst.

Garcia said, “We’ve talked about things, but this (the Rutgers situation) wasn’t a leverage thing. It was never about that.”

Reportedly, both Rutgers and Pitt paid their most recent coaches over $2 million a year. Cristobal makes a base salary of $453,183. He got a $10,000 bonus when FIU made the Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl. He’ll make $75,000 in bonuses should he be FIU’s coach on June 30. Other $10,000 bonuses are in his contract having to do with the team’s Academic Progress Report and grade point average, which have yet to be calculated.

Garcia said last week of larger, more established schools coming after FIU coaches such as Cristobal and baseball’s Turtle Thomas, “I’d rather have coaches everybody wants than coaches nobody wants.”

Both wooings came around pivotal points for the program. Pitt tried to get Cristobal the week of the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl, which FIU lost to Marshall 20-10. The Rutgers pursuit comes the week before Wednesday’s National Signing Day.

A Cristobal departure at this point would’ve changed the minds of some verbal commits and certainly wouldn’t have helped land the recruits still weighing whether or not they want to come to FIU.

It also would’ve been ill-timed for former New Hampshire offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey, hired last week as FIU’s new offensive coordinator.