Everything Mario Cristobal Said After Shootout Victory Against Louisville and 7-0 Start
The Hurricanes are off their best start since 2017 and have thrown the monkey off their back with a post-bye week win. Head coach Mario Cristobal is leading the Hurricanes program back to relevance and continues to mark forward for the team's first ACC Championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.
He had a lot to say following this game. There is a lot of good and bad coming from this game, like most, but he was hopeful that the team could clean it up and finish what they started during the summer.
Opening Statement…
"That's a really fired up, an energetic locker room. Just a hard-fought game. A lot of back and forth, explosive plays by us, explosive plays by them. We had some errors on special teams that certainly hurt us. But one thing that didn't hurt was our effort. We always play hard. We play with resiliency and made some really key plays when it mattered. We were aggressive on fourth downs, which helped us, and we got some key stops when we had to as well. It felt like we pressured their quarterback more. He's a really good player, you know, again, he was our quarterback back in Oregon, back in the day. So it's a lot of good stuff."
On the shoot out game flow…
"Well, I mean, we can get some plays, but what started coming around is our running game. That's probably the biggest difference. And I think credit to Coach Merritt. He felt that Ajay had a great week of practice. He was going to provide a great change up. And he really did. I mean, those couple of first downs he had were key, and then Damien [Martinez] got going. I mean, he just about carried everybody into the endzone. So Mark [Fletcher] had a good day. Mark had the fumble, and he'd love to have that back. I mean, they got two quick scores and in no time to make it a tie game. But, we feel very confident that if it does come down to that, that we can respond well. We don't want to get there. We don't. But again, we responded like we had to and found a way to get it done."
On RB Mark Fletcher…
"He's good. 13 carries for 73 yards, had a couple catches. Great player for us, and all those guys got to play. Those guys are good players. And the offensive line, getting Jalen Rivers back was awesome, but having Markel [Bell] also played a bunch was awesome. There's a really a high level, dependable, tough offensive lineman that we can count on to win games in the case of the pinch or just as part of the rotation. So all in all, I think we rushed for 44 for 219. So certainly a lot of progress in the right direction."
On the late game fumble review on the Cam Ward…
"Yeah, they're close calls. But, I mean, that's what replay is for, and they called it right. So it is what it is. We end up on some of the wrong side, but we had a first down, when something was reviewed as well, a catch as well. There was a couple other things that went with that, so, but that's part of the game, man. We just gotta keep playing, especially with a team like that that can shoot out with you. They got really good players and a really good quarterback. You just, you just have to keep playing. And your mentality has to be a 1-0 mindset, regardless of the result of the previous play."
On Cam Ward converting a 3rd and 17 with his legs…
"Well, I mean, besides the abilities, is awareness of his understanding, his football IQ, his understanding of coverages. There's certain rushes that come with certain games that are going to provide space. And I think he understands how to set up that space even more by looking off a defender and creating more room. And he could run. I mean, he's a guy that's been clocked by some high up miles per hour, real good high speed running. So a lot of confidence in him running or throwing the ball."
On WR Sam Brown's performance…
"I think it was awesome to watch him have that type of a performance. When you're a receiver, everybody wants a ball, right? And I think Coach Dawson hit it right on the head. It's like, it doesn't matter who gets the ball to matter. It matters if we win. Sometimes the ball is going to come your way in this offense, and sometimes it won't, You better block your butt off. If you can't do that, then you can't play this offense. And what you've seen throughout the year, it's on someone else's day on each particular game. [Xavier] Restrepo always has a day, so he's kind of like the X factor in that thing. But that's what it is. I mean, Sam has been working hard, and we joined this so late in the process, man, he's really coming on and looking forward to some more good plays out him."
On LB Raul Aguire's fumble recovery in the end zone…
"Popo just a grinder, hard worker. I mean, he's a 245-pound guy, so when he hits you, you feel it, and he's been playing excellent football for us. You see him more in the rotation now. I mean, you see Kiko [Mauigoa, Wesley [Bissainthe] in there, you know, Jaylin Alderman also played a bunch of snaps also. You're seeing guys getting more and more reps. Chase Smith getting some more reps. So sky's the limit for Popo. Really happy to see him go, because he's got great energy, like the guys love him. He's a great leader, and to see him play better and better is really, it's awesome."
On the explosive plays by Louisville…
"I think part of it, our coverage, they do a great job by setting them up because I do think [Jeff] Brohm is one of the best play-callers in college football. and they wireless on a couple plays. They just flat out did. And then some of them missed tackles. The missed tackles, the lunging, leaving your feet, not coming to balance. That's the stuff that we gotta get cleaned up and get better at. People are going to make plays. We're allowing a few too many. But it's not a matter of like we're not working at it. We're working extremely hard at it, coaches are busting their butts, the players are busting their butts. We got to come together and work together, do a better job, not point fingers and improve that. Got some, a lot of key stops as well. Got the ball back, and then the offense turned it right back. Then we allowed the punt, the fake punt, which we knew, I mean, but they got it. Credit to them, so on to the next one."
On the kickoff return for a touchdown…
"Well, you want to, but you cover every kick. You cover every kick…One guy went down to the ground and knocked off the other guy and just opened a massive hole. And both safeties couldn't get over therein time to squeeze that ball out. Just absolutely horrible, horrible job covering that kick. And the other one, there was another one that wasn't very good either. So we've been giving a lot of guys opportunities on that and they better earn that crap because if you get playing time at the University of Miami, it's a tremendous privilege. So that's going to be a rough meeting, and it needs to be a rough meeting because our expectations were not met in that department."
On the true freshmen who played…
"Yeah, they were coming in that they were just a really high level class. They were high caliber athletes, really good mentality. They were going to get reps because we were layered in a way where we had depth and we had some older guys at a lot of positions, but there were some that needed an injection of youth and playmaking capabilities. And we've done that, not to the extent we want to at some positions, but we're getting more and more guys on the field, and more and more guys are going to have to play. As the season goes on, you're seeing guys go down left and right. There's no longer a waiting game right in college football, you gotta be ready to play when you get there."
On being aggressive on fourth down…
"I mean, you were going to gain a possession one way or the other. So were they. They gained in the form of a fake punt. We were going to gain it back in the form of, we were at our 28, 29 or something like that. Sure, you guys will love writing about me on that one. But I thought it was the right thing. Trust the big guys up front, and I like the size of our back so we liked what we saw. It's not like we're just going to run our head in the wall and hope that it works out. We liked what we saw. We like we saw in the form of those two particular plays which don't give in the detail about scheme. It worked out for us. One was a big, big factor in the game."
