Everything Mario Cristobal Said Heading Into The Final Game Of The Regular Season
The Miami Hurricanes are entering their final game of the regular season and head coach Mario Cristobal knows that it will take a lot for the team to get over Syracuse.
He had a lot to say about the program and his own team during his weekly press conference:
Opening Statement…
"Full speed ahead on preparation for Syracuse and our opportunity this weekend coming off a solid performance against Wake Forest, where we felt that we took some really good steps from a defensive standpoint, running the football amongst other things, and putting together a really strong second half, primarily in the fourth quarter. And we're on it. We're on to the next one right now, looking forward to playing a really good football team that's one of the top offenses in the country. I don't think their defense gets enough credit, their top three in our conference, from a past defense standpoint. I don't think their running back gets enough credit, and that their coach has done a really good job. Coach Brown has put together really good staff and put together some really good players and developing that roster."
On Syracuse's offense…
"Running back is really good player. I mean, he's a lot like what we faced this last week. He's bigger, he's strong, just a one-cut, make and miss and go guys. He does not go down easily. He's complimented by a very big offensive line–really physical. I know that we're just studying the interior right before coming in. They get some good knockback, some good push the line of scrimmage, and they get the ball out and space the ball. He's in the screen game really well, you know. And obviously they use number 19, we know him, right? Local guy that's got a great history of playing high school football down here, family history as well. But they use Gadsen in so many different ways, 11 personnel and 12 personnel. But he's got great players. This guy, two is a great player. 82 is a great player. 7. 5. I could go on and on and on. So all in all, they their success isn't by accident. They're very efficient. They are a team that plays really hard and in the dome, I believe they're five and one. So I defend home territory, home turf, really well. So really good football team."
On playing in a dome this week…
"We split time inside and outside. Just like being on the grass. I mean, there's something like playing and practicing on grass. It's just always it's better on the body, but we'll use it, you know, and certainly it'll be loud and expecting just a great college football atmosphere. So all the amenities that we use to prepare for those away trips, for those for those road games that have that type of an environment, we'll use it in the IPF, but we also have ways to do it outside."
On if there any other games they have played that could help them prep for Syracuse…
"Well, there's always some type of carryover. They're just different. They're different because of the personnel they have and the way they use them. I mean, they lead the country and contest the catches it. In fact, three of the four wide receivers are the top three contested catch receivers in the country. So it's not just play design, it's really good players going up and high pointing the ball and making tough catches with just great body control. But they'll get in loaded sets as well. They can get big in a hurry and get, you know, 12 personnel in there and a third tight end as well on get downhill in the running game behind some of their big offensive linemen. And they play complimentary football really well. They show them the ability to really flip the field with their punter. But also change the complexion of the game with their return game. They've got some really good returners. They use their better athletes on all the return and all the specialty units as well. So, just so again, really good football team."
On staying present on the task at hand…
"Well I think just the college football landscape has helped us with that because every week you watch somebody right focusing on the big picture.. I mean, it's hard to when was the last time you've seen so many top 25 teams just week by week by week succumb to whatever be media pressure,program expectations or whatnot. So it's almost like our process has been really good for so our guys believe it. They regurgitate it.. They flat out, speak it and live it before we even get to them. And I think the part of the best way to put it is like our team, like in our team, the clear understanding is this is Miami against Syracuse. This is not Cam Ward against Kyle McCord. This is not Gadsen's records versus Restrepo's records. This is not Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain's sack record against Fadil Diggs. No. This is Miami against Syracuse in the most important game of the year. So the want to know process of mentality continues."
On whether he addresses what's ahead with the players…
"I would say that just the posturing of our words are very differen. We don't talk much in ifs. We address more in absolutes, like, 'This is what we're going to do. This is how we're going to do it. This is how we're going to approach it.' Like hypotheticals and maybes and probably they're just, are just not part of dialects."
On balancing game prep and recruiting with Signing Day next week…
"I'll respectfully answer the question. Every answer focuses on playing Syracuse. The other balance stuff, you know how we go. We don't stop, but there's no talk about really anything else right now in the building, while we do attend to all the responsibilities of of recruiting."
On the challenges of inheriting a program…
"Well, I mean, every every program has a different starting point. It's all relative to the starting point. Sometimes you guys walk into turnkey operations, and sometimes it's man, you have to uproot and destroy the foundation, lay a new one. So it's all different in their case, I'm not sure that from a background standpoint. All I know is that Coach Brown and his coaches have done a great job supplementing that roster with really, really high level talent, and they brought them together and doing schematically what really fits them. And they've excelled and they've excelled and certainly, if you look at the scores of their games, they were in a position to win every single game that they played this year."
On the new Signing Period and his thoughts on it…
"I mean, there's always last second flips that are tied into every signing day. I don't know if they're really last second. Does that make sense? It's like cramming for a test. If you haven't been doing what you're supposed to all along, it's probably not going to look exactly right. You might get lucky. You might get a home run on it. But, I mean, this is a recruiting is a marathon. It is a relentless every single day, every second that you're not game planning and working with your players and being with your players, you have to spend on that. You have to. I mentioned earlier today a chance on the radio to mention that. I mean if you can't identify and recruit, your value to a college football program is very little. It just is. I'm talking about everybody in the building. I mean, from your people in development, your people in recruiting, your people in academics. I mean, it's always going to be about the people. Always. And the identification process is even more important than the recruiting process, right? Because you could recruit your butt off. If you recruit your butt off and bring in all the wrong ones, you're going to be in worse shape than ever. It never stops."
On what he remembers from the classic Miami vs. Syarcuse game in 1992…
"Loud, loud, loud. I remember getting to the team hotel and there was a continuum of fans at the hotel. They made it uncomfortable for us upon arrival. And I remember they had a really good player. They had a really good defensive end. I remember not being able to hear and trying to look at the ball and trying to get off at the same time and block that absolute monster, the defensive end they had. And I remember, I believe it was Chris. It was getting tackled at the three-yard line and time expiring. That's what I remember, great game, great football team, physical and, yeah, got all those, all those crazy pictures."
On CB Dyoni Hill and his status…
"He's good. Rotation wise, I don't think there's anything to it. Just it ended up being like it ended up being. He's a really good player. He's going to play for us."
On injury status of other players…
"We have complete clarity on Ryan Rodriguez. He's there. Like he's playing. And then we're right there with both Damari [Brown] and Elijah [Alston], and I think we'll have more clarity by tomorrow."
On how Cam Ward has handled the different defensive looks…
"That's a good question. See, I think you know, even though it's not flashy look at or exciting, this past week, he handled those looks about as well as you could handle them. You know, when people start playing, I like to refer to *unclear* coverage, right? It's they're backing up, and you've got a decision to make. You have leverage for a throw, but the guy's kind of in no man's land, like in Purgatory, halfway in, halfway out, and he can play the run. They might have a jam tied to it, so if it really, you could whip on the run if you if you hand it off and if you throw it, you may have missed off on you may have missed on a big run. So I think he did a great job in that cat and mouse game. Also think he did a great job checking us and put us in protections that allowed him to be protecting and get the ball off. The one sack was an RPO where an alignment, really, it made it difficult. That's like a man. It's hard to even get to that kind of rep and practice. It was really hard. It backs out of a gap scheme. Nobody's protecting that. There's no way for Cam to really make an adjustment when he saw what he had to the boundary, which I'm sure you guys saw the route conflict over there. So I guess, to answer your question, he's really, really done a great job, and he is all about getting pushed and getting better."
On the squib kick…
"We certainly didn't have success on one of our earlier kickoffs, and weren't quite sure that we were that we're ready to kick it deep again, and that we were airtight, and how we're going to do that. And we looked at it on the iPad, and we felt like we could get there. And we did on the next kickoff, we certainly and it was the exact same. Screen was the exact same just about ball placement with more physicality and more discipline body safeties, we really crowded. We almost overlapped the front line, and we covered it. And if you do that with your safeties, they have to be on point. They have to be right. They have to be perfect. If not, there's no just the distribution of your tacklers and the leverages are off, and all of a sudden there's a giant hole, and we didn't leverage the ball, in fact, we let it spit, and the contained guy was wasn't physical enough, and didn't set the edge wall enough, and then all of a sudden they weren't. But we've worked on it before. We've done it before, not a ton. We have a couple different ways to get to it. We feel better about it."
On DE Tyler Baron and his limited snap count…
"He's not banged up. That's just the way coaches chose to do the rotation."
On Dylan Day and his special teams success…
"He's going to be a great player. He's really close to being in that rotation, like he's right there, and we have confidence to play him now in the rotation should his number be called. His play on special teams has been nothing short of spectacular. He's been a game changer and I think we've all over the years of Miami, you've all seen how great special teams players end up becoming great every down players, and he's on track to do that."
On the depth building process at this stage in his tenure…
"Progress, I would say. It's working its way there. We'd like to develop more depth in the secondary, at all spots. I do see a really bright future for, our young guys play a lot. We play them in all different kinds of ways. You guys saw Jordan Lyle really had a day. And Lofton has had his moments. And I think by the end of this year, you know, we take care of business. I mean, the we should have more freshman American for the last two years than just about anybody. That would be a testament to recruiting the right guys, developing them the right way, and then granted them the opportunities that they earn. But I think Dylan Day is a great example of that."
On the defensive performance…
"Not too many defenses allowed seven points this past weekend, and the first drive was certainly something that was not positive. Caught the sore route, right? They got to pass that off on the back, and the safety takes the post and the corner fluffs off right? So after that, really, the pick six turned things around. I mean, we went over this morning as a team, because it's important for the offense to know too. The offense was kind of splitting a little bit, and all of a sudden for nine successive drives, I believe four to five of them were three outs. Two of them were four outs and then what I believe was a turnover or whatnot in the last round of the game. Nine straight possession without a score. Three of those were on the plus side, right. One at our 30 yard line after the fumble, two at the 40 something. That really, hard to do, and I believe Wake Forest was averaging well over 20 points a game, 24,28 points a game. So tremendous turnaround, communication, alignment and assignment. We leveraged the ball well. We communicated well, lined up and we played fast and we played free. And certainly a step towards what we want to be as a defense."
On Jordan Lyle and having him stay patient…
"Well, we tell them, sort of, wait your turn, make your turn. Take all that talent and approach like a professional. I think Jordan has, and OJ [Frederique] has as well. There's a lot of guys that are young, that probably have equal talent or close to it. The approach of those two, Elija Lofton, a guy like Francis Mauigoa, last year, Reuben Bain. They kind of take an extra step. They push it to another level that relates to just being mature, you know. So instead of telling them to be patient, we tell them, 'make a way. Make it difficult on us.' Play so well, practice so well that you have to be played. And this last week and a half, that's what Jordan did. Two weeks before that, three weeks before that? Ajay [Allen] did that as well. So guys that are showing it, they're getting their opportunities."
On getting the defense ready to be challenged early by a good offense…
"The first thing is you hate to talk about game plan publicly as you prepare for them, but you really study the people that have had success against them, right? When you have accurate passers that have a good offensive line and they get the ball out and have a good running back, you can't be, can't be overly static, right? You have to be able to do things that make them get off of their schedule,get off of their blueprint a little bit and get them out of sync. So when you study him as a passer, you realize that this guy Kyle McCord is really, really good at getting to a second and third reading the progression. You start to realize that he keeps plays alive and extends plays by just having great pocket presence and moving around. So you study all the things he does well, and just try to find the things that you know have given him some problems, and you put it together. But I don't know how to answer that question without just diving into what we're going to do schematically, but we just recognize the fact he's really good."
On if he has a relationship with Fran Brown…
"No. We had a chance to meet at the media conferences or whatnot. We don't really get much social time and life period. So how social we are as human beings with all the crazy responsibilities we have. But he's shown he's had a really good track record developing his position groups, and now as a head coach, really already is up to eight wins in his first year."
On offensive pass interference calls being called more on rub routes…
"You just can't run into the guy. You gotta avoid it. You gotta avoid it. It's really gotta be part of a route to have contact and not be OPI. It's just too easy to execute a pick play. It is so I do you get frustrated with it. Of course, I'd love for that to be a touchdown and not what it is, but it's going to be called. It's being called most of the time. And so I think that's going to always be a difficult one. I think for the most part, the conference has allowed people to play, if it's given some physical play and yanking and tugging on both sides. And sometimes you're going to end up on the great side, and sometimes on the not so great side of that stuff."
On the pre-snap penalties on Saturday and how it impacted Miami…
"It did. We really practice the right thing. We work at it. The players themselves preach that they do it. Those things were absolute killers on Saturday. They were. We had two of those, right? We hadn't had something all year–an alignment mistake. After running counter for, I believe nine yards we're going to have 1st or 2nd and 1 down deep, and all sudden, we're back and we end up throwing a pick on that on that particular drive. So the two legal procedures, the legal procedure in the holding knocked us back 15 yards before half, which we end up kicking a field goal from the 7-yard line. So there's some more real estate that we could have had. Yeah, that discipline part is that'll be the bridge between our ending up in field goals in the red zone and making those things touchdowns, and that's it was a big point of emphasis this morning in our meeting. So gotta have it."
On his favorite Thanksgiving food to eat…
"I don't know. I'll go with picadillo. We have practice and all that stuff. We'll make sure that the guys do have a good meal on Wednesday night and a little bit on Thursday, and we'll hop on a plane and get out there on Friday, get a chance to walk through the dome so they could see the new, different kind of environment and go play ball."
