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TAMPA — Florida International’s new, on-campus football stadium is going up in phases, the first to be completed in time for the home opener this fall.

Additional phases, to come later, will include a new field house, a weight room, a student-support complex and 27,000 more seats.

Mario Cristobal can relate.

When he became the FIU coach last year, he inherited a team that had gone winless the previous season. He knew the only way to create a championship-caliber program was in phases.

Phase one, complete.

After beginning the 2007 campaign with 11 straight losses, the Golden Panthers closed out the Orange Bowl with a 38-19 victory over North Texas to end the season with a building block.

“To finally have a breakthrough,” Cristobal said Friday, speaking at the Florida Sports Writers Association college football media days, “it validates a lot of what was done to get to that point. It helps players understand why you’ve done certain things.”

Cristobal, a former Miami tackle who played on two national championship teams across town, knows a thing about rebuilding.

He was, after all, an assistant at Rutgers as Greg Schiano began turning the once-hapless Scarlet Knights into a Big East contender.

Cristobal looks at FIU as a similar program with similar potential. He suspects the Sun Belt Conference will learn that soon enough.

“It’s almost like Rutgers déjà vu,” the Miami native said. “I think the only difference is that we’re in a better area with better talent, with a commitment just as strong to get it done.”

When you watch him command a room, you have a hard time imagining FIU will be a one-win team again anytime soon. The 37-year-old has the energy and passion of a presidential candidate.

Cristobal was especially excited Friday when speaking of recent FIU hire Bill Legg, who left his post as co-offensive coordinator at Purdue to run the Golden Panthers offense.

“It was a big-time coup for us,” Cristobal said.

Still, the Panthers will face mountainous challenges in the early part of the season. They’ll play Kansas and Iowa on the road to start the year before coming home to open the new stadium against South Florida, a team that peaked at No. 2 last fall.

That’s fine, Cristobal said. He knows his program can’t reach the next phase of this rebuilding project without stepping into the deep end.

“Maybe I’m a little crazy in that manner,” Cristobal said, “but I enjoy the challenge. ... Part of being on that big stage is getting up there, putting up your dukes against the best and going to battle.”