Everything Miami's Mario Cristobal Said After Final Home Game of the Season
A bitter sweet victory for the Miami Hurricanes head coach as he notches another win on the season and finishes the home stretch of the schedule undefeated.
This is a great accomplishment for the program rebuilder and now he focus in on Syracuse as the Orange stand in the way of the Hurricanes and their date with the ACC Championship against the SMU Mustangs.
Opening statement…
We obviously had a bunch of seniors today and it’s Senior Day but at the same time they have a lot of football to play so we didn’t spend a lot of time on that but certainly thankful to them because that’s the most important part of any program your players. They closed out a regular season at home undefeated which was a big feat for us. Lot of progress. I know there’s a lot of people that I’ve known for a long time since I played that (say) defending home base and playing winning football at home was always right at the top of the food chain and top of the priority list. I also want to acknowledge our fans for coming out all year long and doing a really good job supporting this team. Every single week whether it be home or away but today the focus is on the ones that were here and have been here all year because we certainly felt them all year long. We’re thankful for that, and that will keep getting stronger and stronger.
The story of the game was the defense without a doubt. After that first series and the busted coverage that’s what Miami Hurricane defense should look like. And then offensively we had our struggles. We caused a lot of it ourselves with penalties, miscues, dropped balls and some turnovers. But the defense we leaned on them and they came through in a big-time way even when they were on short fields. I hadn’t seen a defensive performance like that anywhere in a long time. That was really awesome and they certainly deserve all the credit and all the mention of the game.
On if the defense needed a performance like the one Saturday…
“We felt it during the bye week. Even though they scored first, we were more along the lines of, ‘Everybody settle down.’ The couple things that hurt us on that drive, we’ve been good at, and we fixed them. We’re going to play better against those particular things – the formations, the alignments and the routes. It was a tremendous turnaround for them, in terms of communication, alignment, assignment. Those guys were able to play fast and they played with an edge today. They knew the game was going to come down to them providing stops, because we’ve been really good offensively all year. We had our struggles [today]. We play as a team. In November, it’s funny…in November, you take the games, you take the wins as you can get them. It was really important to get that one today.”
On going 1-0 next week resulting in a trip to Charlotte and the ACC Championship Game…
“The entire focus is on getting better, and to play against a really good team at their place in the dome [Carrier Dome]. I haven’t been up there in a long, long time. Certainly, a tough place to play. And they’re a really good football team. I know they won today, as I was walking out of the locker room. Certainly, all focus and attention has already been turned to that game.”
On the play of RB Jordan Lyle…
“You’ve seen it since camp. The guy is a really good football player. He’s explosive. We’ve been really healthy at [running] back all year, and may we stay that way. Sometimes, with the way the ball comes out in the RPO game, sometimes you don’t get as many touches as we planned in the course of the game, but his work ethic, his performance in practice, it warranted him getting the ball today. When he got the opportunity, he made it happen in a big time way. Great job by him and a bunch of other guys.”
On the efficiency of the offense on first down…
“All year long, it’s been a pretty good characteristic of what we do offensively. There are some things we did [well]. We were in third-and-manageable for the most part. All of it was created by the defense. The momentum they created, they never flinched. Ball turned over inside the 20, inside the 35…they just kept playing. A really, really special effort by those guys. And certainly, their momentum and their energy at the end of the game helped the offense catch some fire with good field position and made some scores happen.”
On biggest adjustment by defense during bye week…
“Communication, alignment, assignment, and really, the leadership council and the players on this football team, they decided they had had enough and they were going to make things better from top to bottom, and they did. They went out here today and they proved it. You don’t want to allow a touchdown, but I thought it was neat that after they scored on their opening possession, that that was it. There was another miscue on special teams, where we allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown. Hats off to the defense and all those players, they played unbelievable.”
On the play of DB Meesh Powell and what he has meant to the program…
“Really smart. Self-starting team player. Loves the game of football. Really loves his teammates and plays hard for them. Prepares hard with them. He’s all about being a great teammate and all about winning. You can’t say anything but super positive things about him. He’s like these other guys back there…these guys are unique because they’ve seen a lot of football and they’ve played a lot of football. This means the world to them. Even though sometimes it may not look pretty, they’re going to do whatever it takes to get it done and to find a way to get that 1-0.”
