Everything Mario Cristobal Said After Dominant Ball State Victory
What more could head coach Mario Cristobal say for his program and the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes? The team dominated even after a "sloppy" start at the beginning of the game.
Cristobal walked to the podium and had much to say about this game and some of his teammates from the 1989 Championship team that was celebrated during the game:
Opening statement…
Alright, good evening everybody. I appreciate you guys hanging in. Certainly, appreciate the fans who hung in as well throughout the successive delays and certainly a good feeling. You know, they do a really good job and awesome to have them there and all the players were really happy to see them hang in there. I wanted to give credit to Coach Neu and his team. He’s got a good football team. From a personnel standpoint, we have a big advantage, but he has got a tough football team and I want to wish him the best with the rest of the season. But, you know, from start to finish, I thought we became a better football team. I thought we left the field different than how we entered, just finishing drives, getting them off the field [with] three-and-outs more successfully. [The] third down defense continued to play at a high level and got a shutout and really controlled the middle eight, which is a big thing for us so, all in all, just a really good performance and looking forward to a great opportunity next week.
On playing in front of the 1989 team…
Well, those are my teammates so there was some natural pressure and they better play well in front of my guys. In the springtime, when the alumni came for the alumni reunion and the spring game and they spoke to our team, we’ve been here for a couple years but that one hit different. I go back to what Michael Irvin had said to the team and what Andre Johnson and Devin Hester had said to the team and then those guys spent a couple hours just sitting at tables with our guys and talking to them. It just hit different. They understand Miami and what the Miami brotherhood is more now than when they arrived, a lot of these guys. So, it meant a lot to them and it meant a lot to the reunion guys, as well.
On takeaways from last two weeks and using multiple players…
We did. We cleaned up a lot of our stuff too, I mean the use of technology, the headsets, all that stuff, our systems, figuring out who can do what well. And then also, putting some guys in situations to play to see if they can perform at a level where we can win with them so, I think a lot of progress in those areas. The one area that was disappointing was the penalties. We certainly, on special teams, are trying hard to become a better special teams unit and we had some bright spots early on kickoff and then after we got tangled up on some of the return game stuff that is not us. We have got to do a better job. All in all, just proud of the team for handling the delay. They did a good job with that. I’m proud of them for making the decision to get better today. You know, [we’ll] see our families, get in bed and get ready for a big game next week.
On positives from the run game…
I thought we, early on, weren’t running the ball very well. Some of it was loaded boxes, some of it was, you know, we’ve got a do a better job. Maybe we sometimes missed a hole. I think it was a little bit of everybody contributing to our lack of really running the ball to our standard. As the game went on, we started wearing on them a little bit, started popping some runs. We’ll look at the film and we’ll certainly attack that because that’s a big part of what we do. We’re throwing the ball really, really well. We’ve had our moments in the run game and, if we combine the two, we’re going to be really hard to stop.
On the ability to spread the ball to multiple players…
Well, I think now that it’s year two of Coach Dawson’s system, I think everyone is really starting to feel comfortable, excel at it, understand timing and spacing because, in the passing game, that is the most critical thing along with protection. We’ve got a good offensive line. Cam [Ward] sometimes checks us and puts us in great protection and when he knows he’s not protected, he knows where to go with the ball. He gets to that person quickly. Again, we’re hitting on all cylinders in the passing game but, you know, you’ll ask Cam and he’ll tell you that he felt like he left some things out there that could have made it a better day and that’s the way we want to stay. We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.
