Everything Mario Cristobal Said After Final Regular Game of the Season
The third season for Mario Cristobal has come to an end and with a 10-2 record, there are still many questions that need to be answered about how the season ended. This is the best season Cristobal has had since leaving Oregon but this loss could have kept the Canes out of the playoffs.
OPENING STATEMENT
"Obviously, very difficult. It was a very difficult final game of the regular season. Certainly, there were some explosive plays on both sides and opportunities to pull ahead at times. Credit to them. They had a great game plan, offensively, they've been. They kept putting points on the board. It was a matter of us getting one more stop."
WHY DID YOU OPT TO KICK THE FIELD GOAL ON THE FINAL DRIVE?
"We use analytics. It was outside the 10-yard line with four minutes to go. It was, 'get the points and get a stop.' We were going to have to get a stop anyways with four minutes. The clock was wound down more. It was a heavy go."
HOW BIG OF A IMPACT DID PENALTIES AND TURNOVERS MAKE?
"We had several opportunities, guys. We had several opportunities. At the end of the day, when you lose, you didn't coach well enough and you didn't play well enough. There's not much else to it. You saw the plays that turn the game one way or the other. Penalties and turnovers played a monstrous role. Hopefully, I'll get up some clarity on the personal foul and the big run by Damien Martinez that got called back."
WHAT MADE IT SO DIFFICULT TO STOP SYRACUSE'S OFFENSE?
"We lined up well. They made their contested catch just about 80-90% of the time. We had a difficult time covering them. The ball was out quick. We affected the quarterback early. We were up by a good chunk. It didn't affect them as much as it went on. Jalen Rivers got called for a hold and that was a really big run. A couple of penalties really hurt us. I can't tell what they called the personal foul on at the end, but that pushed us back down in there tight.
"I guess it relates back to them. They were executing throughout the game. They were executing a little bit better than we were. We were trying to play some man. We played some zone. You name it, we mixed it up as much as we could. We did not have much success. We blew a couple of assignments back there. We did. Then they ran the ball more effectively than we should have let them."
WHAT IS THE MESSAGE AFTER BLOWING A 21-POINT LEAD?
"It's really, really disappointing. Like we always tell the team, we take it and we eat it all together. We eat the loss as a staff, as a program, coaches, players and everybody. It's accountability. There's no hiding from accountability. It's really, really disappointing. We did a lot. We accomplished a lot this season. There's a lot of stuff to be proud of. However, we wanted this one. We wanted the opportunity this one could lead to when we came up short. That's on all of us, starting with myself. We don't shy away from it. We're hard workers in every way, shape and form. It's really difficult. It's really difficult to take."
HOW DO YOU QUICKLY SHIFT FOCUS TO SIGNING DAY?
"I don't think that ever, ever stops. You just never let it interfere with game planning and preparing everything else. We felt really prepared coming to the game, and it showed early. Some chinks started showing up that. But it doesn't affect recruiting. It doesn't affect everything else that you're doing to run the program. At this moment, you can imagine the locker room and how difficult and how hard that is to take. We put ourselves in a position to play in a good postseason game. There's a lot of stuff going on in terms of the CFP and how they're going to figure things out. There's a lot of good football teams out there. We are one of them. Credit to Syracuse for putting together a good game."
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON MIAMI'S CFP CHANCES?
"We have to re-emphasize reality. This team has won 10 football games against some really good opponents. This last game, it came all the way down to the wire. Our two losses are by one possession left in a touchdown. That makes us one of the better teams in the country. We can control what we can control. We have to wait and see, but certainly, this team has really worked hard and busted its butt."
WHAT DID YOU TELL XAVIER RESTREPO AFTER THE FUMBLE?
"Keep playing. This game is going to keep going on. This thing was going to come down to the last possession. It did. It doesn't matter if we could get that stop right. We force a turnover. They force a turnover. There's going to be a stop in there somewhere. You want to make sure you found a way to get a stop and hopefully get the ball last, right?"
