Mario Cristobal Breaks Down the Miami Hurricanes' Win Over Southern Miss
It certainly wasn't the start to the game that head coach Mario Cristobal wanted, with Miami holding a slim 10-7 lead over the Golden Eagles at halftime on Saturday. In the end though, the Canes triumphed and the end result of a 30-7 victory likely won't raise any negative eyebrows (especially given everything else that transpired in college football this weekend).
The Hurricanes looked sluggish and anxious early in their first FBS matchup of the season. In fact, some would say that Southern Miss outplayed Miami for most of the first two quarters. But that's what halftime adjustments are for.
"I thought we'd be a little more polished in the first half, but we weren't. And so, what do you do? You go in there and you fix it and you come out and I think we did a decent job in the second half," said Cristobal before adding, "We did a great job on defense in the second half."
In the second half, the Canes defense looked like the unit we saw last weekend, even without lineman Akheem Mesidor who was sidelined just before the game. Miami held Southern Miss to just 87 yards in the half and forced two turnovers. One of those was a key interception by cornerback Tyrique Stevenson in the end zone, which abruptly stopped the momentum the Golden Eagles had built on the 69-yard drive leading up to the pick.
The Canes though do have some things to sort out in the secondary. More than a few times already this season, teams have used their size to take advantage of Miami's shorter corners in jump ball situations.
"You've seen that they've done that to us a couple weeks in a row, right?" Cristobal said of the strategy, often known as a 50/50 ball. "They'll just shoot them up there and use their size and strength and length against some of our guys...They made plays on us as we did on them...That is certainly an area where people are coming after us, so we have to get better at it."
Offensively, the Canes stalled early and only had three points on the board for most of the first two quarters. A big part of the problem was that they couldn't get the run game going at all in the first half, which took the wind out their sails on most drives. Miami had only 68 rushing yards entering halftime.
"We need to run harder, quite honestly. When the Canes run hard, we are hard to stop and it opens up everything for us," said Miami's head coach.
He's likely referring to the first half as running back Henry Parrish Jr. and company got the ground game full speed in the latter half. Parrish finished with 109 yards and a score, his second straight 100-yard game of the season. His backfield buddy, the bulldozing Thad Franklin, added 49 yards and a touchdown of his own.
Another bright spot from that running back unit was this season's first Jaylan Knighton appearance. Knighton has been out with injury for a lot of camp, but was the team's leading touchdown scorer in 2021.
"[Knighton], as you guys know, had been out for a while and was a gametime decision...When he was in there, he did some things that were really good and started to look like his old self," said Cristobal of his young ball carrier. "We figure, another week of practice, we can get another full-speed player and continue to enhance our run game."
Along with Knighton, Miami expects Mesidor and offensive tackle Zion Nelson to be at full-speed as well for their Week 3 matchup with Texas A&M. The Aggies are reeling from a stunner that saw them lose to Appalachian State on Saturday and it could be an ideal opportunity for the Hurricanes to strike down their first Power 5 opponent of the year.
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