Mario Cristobal continued his media career with a stop on the Mac and Murray Podcast. A transcript of the interview is below:
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach Mario Cristobal, great to see you again, brother. I was hanging out with you weekly, it seemed like, for a month and a half there — which I loved. It was an amazing ride, an amazing 25 season. So just to have a little fun talking about that today: how you doing? Are you able to breathe a little bit? You had an extra month and a half of football. What’s going on in your world?
Mario Cristobal:
It doesn’t stop. It’s continuous. The deeper you play into the season, the less rewarded you are in terms of trying to keep up with the portal and recruiting — you fall behind, lose a couple weeks. But at the same time, the exposure you get from it is great.
We haven’t stopped. You don’t really have time to settle down. You’re on the road, you’re getting after it, you’re getting your team settled. They’re grinding right now, and they’re hungry. Motivation is really high, as it should be.
Eric Mac Lain:
Yeah. The goal is to make it to December in the playoffs. The goal is obviously to make it to January. I was a little shocked with the calendar release for the next two years and how far everything is pushed back into January. None of it makes any sense to me.
When are we going to figure out how to make this thing where the season ends and everyone can start at the same time when it comes to being able to build the roster for next year? Because like you said, you’re at such a disadvantage trying to figure out who’s going to stay, who’s going to go, and then trying to look ahead to 2026 while also trying to compete for a championship. It makes no sense.
Mario Cristobal:
It doesn’t. I’ll tell you the part that I think is probably the most illogical: you’re players are on campus — the new ones — your coaches are on the road recruiting. You spend all this time recruiting them, their parents come here to drop them off, and you’re not around. You’re on the road. That’s not a way you want to start things off.
And to your point as well, it all comes together in a way where it’s not helping the game. I think everybody’s trying to make it better, but we don’t have an answer. It starts with the calendar.
If we’re going to play these games, we’ve got to move up. We’ve got to have only one bye week and roll through and end this thing on January 1st or the week after. That’s the best solution we could have for now. I know there are TV issues and contracts, but that seems to be the best alternative.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, does anybody ask y’all — I don’t even know who does it, the NCAA or who’s in charge — but do coaches have any input or any say in this thing? Because you’re the one dealing with it. I would think they’d want your input.
Mario Cristobal:
I think we have input. I just don’t think we have impact. And that’s a massive difference between the two.
I think it’s working its way there. I do think there’s effort behind it. I just think it has to do with the investment behind these games in December and January that keep pushing this thing back.
And it’s affecting things where we’re not maximizing player development, talent acquisition, roster retention. Those things are taking big hits.
Aaron Murray:
From my perspective — not being an ACC guy, but being a big fan of college football and growing up in a time where the U was as big as anything out there — I lived in Miami, family’s from Miami, I knew all about Miami football.
Even with the limited time you had to focus on the portal, you hit some mega home runs. In your mind over the last two seasons and what you’ve built, is the brand of the U back? Because to me, it feels as **** as it did when I was a 10-year-old in Miami looking at college football and who the big boys were playing week in and week out.
Eric Mac Laim:
Hey, coach, that’s my bad. I should have told him. That’s on me. He should have told me. That [the U is Back] is the ultimate cringe line for coach.
Aaron Murray:
My bad. I missed something. My bad.
Aaron Murray:
How about this — are you happy with where you are, coach?
Mario Cristobal:
Yeah. I think we’re always trying to get to the point where Miami is here and progressing in really big, powerful strides.
I’ve been away for 20 years, more than that, and I would watch from afar all the talk — “Are you going to be back?” What do you mean back? We don’t go backwards. We go forward.
Those days will never be duplicated. We had a cast of characters that was made for TV. The 30 for 30 is the rated PG version compared to the reality of those times.
But I do think we can take that and elevate those standards. We take those principles and values, bring them into modern time, and go to work — but never make it heavier by placing all those legends on the shoulders of our guys. Instead, making sure they become the modern-day legacy guys and legends.
Eric Mac Lain:
That perspective is obviously important for the man running the show. During your run in the playoff, I was able to spend time with a lot of those legends and have great conversations, and they echo all that.
They’ll say, it’s not our fault we set that precedent and became Hall of Famers and won national championships — but they don’t want to put extra pressure on guys that already have pressure.
It’s fascinating to me, having covered you so intimately, that you’d think there’s so much pressure on the outside for Miami to be great. There is way more pressure internally — guys like yourself and former players put all those things on.
So I don’t think Miami needs anybody else’s help to be hungry and create chips and fire, because it’s there every day. You look in those rafters and you’re indoor, and to match that, to be one of those one day, I think is plenty motivation for these guys.
Mario Cristobal:
The expectations from inside are always greater than outside.
I’ve never been affected by outside stuff. When people bring up “What about the outside?” — if they aren’t in there with us at 5:00 a.m. kicking *** in workouts, grinding — or, god forbid, in a hospital overcoming an injury — if they’re not in that, they’re not part of the equation.
The outside stuff gets blocked out. What’s neat now is the progress. Rueben Bain’s going to get a banner. Francis Mauigoa is going to get a banner beside Cam Ward’s banner. The draft keeps looking different. Now we have 10-plus combine invites. Now April is starting to match up with the season.
When we first got here, there was one guy drafted in the seventh round. Never forget — I was recruiting somewhere and we had to tell the pilot, “Hey, stop.” One of those private planes in and out of different places. He told us to stop because the seventh round’s almost over and if we don’t have a guy drafted, Miami’s draft streak is over.
I’m sitting on the plane, I look over at Dennis Smith, who serves as our general manager. I’m like, “Brother, if we don’t overhaul this roster, our butts are going to be sitting on a plane going somewhere else.” That’s where so many people have been involved in doing that. With roster comes people. With people comes culture.
Eric Mac Lain:
Quarterback position — I’ve got to talk about that. You go from Cam Ward, you get him in the transfer portal, absolute home run. Carson Beck, we talked about him leading up to the playoffs, how good he was coming in from Georgia, overcoming the injury, going in there with limited reps in the offseason to do what he did all season long.
And now you get Darian Mensah — I had one of his games this year, had a chance to sit down with him. What an incredible young man. Humble, hardworking, incredibly talented — from his time at Tulane to Duke last year.
How do you get him going? What’s the recipe that proved useful for Cam, then Carson, and now Darian heading into 2026?
Mario Cristobal:
A lot of people have worked really hard to help develop these guys. People are seeing: Cam Ward was projected fifth, sixth, seventh — and now first overall.
Let’s switch gears — another position: Akheem Mesidor, Day 3 guy, all of a sudden he’s launched himself into the first round. And it’s not just development — the strength room, nutrition, everything else. It’s a supporting cast.
The more you win, everybody else’s stock elevates. That’s catching fire. It’s not a bad thing to live in Coral Gables either — it’s one of one.
The private school setting, Coral Gables — it’s a quiet, take-care-of-your-business environment, and access to NIL and business opportunities. We’re postured perfectly for the future of college football.
Elite talent has been coming this way and we hammer them hard, and they’re into it. It’s a good combination. Stay humble, keep our mouth shut, work our butts off, and let’s go get better. That’s all we’re focused on — getting better.
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach, everything you just alluded to — I’ve said this many times post-national championship — Miami is on their way to a decade of dominance. The way you’re structured, the way college football is right now.
Maybe the most important thing people aren’t talking about is retention. You were just in a national championship and I don’t think you lost a starter to the portal. I think you kept everybody you wanted to keep, and then some with portal additions.
That speaks louder than any win. It shows people want to be there. People who could go start and be paid handsomely other places want to be at the University of Miami. How do you look at that? Do you take pride in it? Is it something you’ve been working toward?
Mario Cristobal:
I appreciate you saying that. It’s the biggest part — roster retention.
We feel strongly about who we recruited. Let’s make sure we’re not developing for some other team, right?
The starters, the front-line guys — they returned. A couple guys had NFL opportunities and chose what I call the Akheem Mesidor model, the Cam Ward model, to raise their status. That’s unfinished business for them, and unfinished business for what we want — to hold up the big trophy.
We’re not going to speak about that. We’re going to speak about 1-0 and our dailies. But there’s unfinished business here when you don’t win that last one.
The culture right now is everybody-driven. Everybody has a responsibility to bring energy. There’s no BS. There’s no faking it. It’s driven people that want to be 1-0 at everything we do.
We’ve got the right people. The talent is getting better every year. We’ve got to bring it together and galvanize it. It starts with the trenches. We’ve got to get the big boys going.
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach, I know how hard you work and how hard you push your staff and your players. Maybe it’s too early — it’s February — but maybe before, you’re kicking *** and pushing people, and they’re like, “What is this guy doing? Why are we doing this so hard?”
Now that you’ve been to the natty, have you seen where you don’t have to press in different places because everybody understands the standard you’ve set for four or five years now? Have you seen an elevation there?
Mario Cristobal:
We have, but we also feel we have to press even more. Human nature is what it is.
You go around town now and it’s, “Hey, great job,” and I don’t want to hear any of that. I really don’t.
Now we have activated a fan base and a community that is out of their minds — awesome energy. But players are players, and we have a unique way of bringing everybody back down to earth with how we practice and how we get after it. And they want that.
That group we just had — they couldn’t be pushed hard enough. They wanted more and more and more. So these guys now, they’re going to find out. We’re going to find out. We’re going to grow together, develop, surround them with the best of the best, and get the most out of everybody because we owe that to them.
It starts with everything — top down. Everybody’s got to carry that message to their room and make sure it gets applied daily. No room for complacency. No slogans, none of that. It’s one team, and we do it a certain way.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, you talked today about players improving draft stock, winning awards year to year. We don’t talk enough about coaches developing.
As you look at your time as a head coach and what you’ve been able to do at Miami, where have you grown? Where did you grow the most this year? And where can you get better heading into next season after learning what you learned making it to the national championship?
Mario Cristobal:
I want to get better at everything.
I never walk into a room saying, “Vince Lombardi has arrived and this is the perfect way to do it.” I approach every aspect of the game — who we bring in, how we evaluate, how we game plan, how I can assist, how we coach, how we organize and orchestrate practice, to the game itself, the messaging, critical downs and decisions.
We go through a slew of scenarios daily and weekly that end up playing out big for us. We consistently review and want to get better. So I want to get better at everything. We take the lifelong learner approach. We’ve got miles to go.
Eric Mac Lain:
Yeah, and it’s an important topic because nobody talks about it. Coaches are learning every day. Your staff — you hope everyone’s getting better year to year. You have to go through hard stuff to figure it out. You have to go through situations and scenarios until you do.
Coach, as we look at this past season, it was kind of a season of three parts. You have the nuclear start — you come out the gates, beat Notre Dame at home, hammer Florida, beat Florida State at Florida State, and you’re on top of the world — number two in the country, I believe.
Then there’s the couple of losses, and then you go into playoff mode after that SMU game. Hearing you speak, that team understood, if we do not play our absolute best, it’s over.
What shifted? What happened to that team following that SMU loss in Dallas?
Mario Cristobal:
The realization that we have really good people working really hard, but we’re losing in the margins — and the whole world was coming down on our guys.
So we made a conscious decision. Number one, as a staff, we were going to be our players’ best advocates, their biggest fans, their biggest supporters. We were going to be relentless teachers. Yelling and screaming wasn’t going to get it done.
We committed to unbelievable energy. That first practice after the SMU loss — it was like, “Wow.” Ball security is a little bit better. The efficiency of our passing game is a little bit better. Yards after contact are better. Finishing through tackles and scoring is better.
We started getting better in the margins because we lost games in the margins. We had the ball at the end of the game to win against Louisville. We had the ball with a chance to win against SMU. We didn’t complete it. We were going to find those margins.
One day at a time, we brought it. Credit to everybody in the building. Great job.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, last one for me. One of my favorite players — I may need to go down to Miami and get a jersey. Malachi Toney has become one of the favorites in the country. The way he plays — unselfish. The blocking, catching, throwing — he does it all. If you could get me a signed jersey, I’d appreciate that.
Mario Cristobal:
I take cash and certified checks only.
Aaron Murray:
We’ll support some NIL deal from Malachi.
But what more can you squeeze out of him next year? First year you’re still learning what the kid can and can’t do, and it seems like he can do everything. How much more excited are you in year two to have him, and what more can you put on his plate?
Mario Cristobal:
Toward the end of the year, we were getting a lot of bracket coverage — trail coverage on him. So now we’re continuing to enhance the pieces around him. Our run game — that’s going to be hard to stop. And we’re getting some size and speed outside.
I thought our outside guys last year, CJ and Keelan, those guys were awesome. If CJ doesn’t get hurt — he’s going to have a great NFL career. So is Keelan.
But the parts around Malachi, and the continued development of our next quarterback — and mind you, the young quarterback room is awesome — as much as we love Darian and think he’ll be a difference maker, he’s also going to help develop those young guys because we’re poised to continue the influx of high school recruiting and impact.
I don’t know where to start with Malachi. You saw him throw — he was 15/15 in the state title game in high school before they yanked him because he had six touchdowns and said, “All right, buddy. You’re done.”
Maybe we should talk about, do we need to take another quarterback? Is he going to get in the future?
But the best part about him is his humility and his desire to make this team elite. And let’s call it what it is: it’s Saturday, and for guys that have a certain amount of plays — five, six, 700 — we’re trying to eliminate some of the hard angle cutting and high-impact stuff on their joints.
I’m out here working on Saturday, and guess who’s out there leading the charge — throwing and catching and running all over the place. So I think Darian Mensah enjoyed throwing to him for the first time.
Eric Mac Lain:
I’m sure he does. And he’s got a couple good teammates out there too. That’s going to be fun.
Coach, last one — and so grateful for your time — overall, your message not only to Canes fans, but more in particular your players for '26 and what’s next that we’re going to see coming out the gates early.
Mario Cristobal:
One thing — and you don’t have time after you close the season, you’re on the road again — you don’t have time to thank people.
Man, I’m so grateful. Beyond words. Number one, these players. Enduring 5-7, 7-5, coming back to work, they recruited for us, they put together the team, and then fighting through all that stuff — one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Maybe the best coaching experience I’ve ever had, being around these guys and watching them elevate Miami to another level.
Going forward, the momentum — the positive anger right now to improve, to push, to grind — that’s at an all-time high.
The community is on fire about the Miami Hurricanes. It feels like when I was a player here — it’s a fever and it’s spreading. The support of the pro teams in town — you feel that. To have the Panthers come out — Big Matt [Tkachuk]— it’s great, and it adds to the drive.
We’re very driven. All we want to do is keep our mouth shut, go to work, focus on us and nothing else, go get better, and do right by our teammates and this community.
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach Mario Cristobal, great to see you again, brother. I was hanging out with you weekly, it seemed like, for a month and a half there — which I loved. It was an amazing ride, an amazing 25 season. So just to have a little fun talking about that today: how you doing? Are you able to breathe a little bit? You had an extra month and a half of football. What’s going on in your world?
Mario Cristobal:
It doesn’t stop. It’s continuous. The deeper you play into the season, the less rewarded you are in terms of trying to keep up with the portal and recruiting — you fall behind, lose a couple weeks. But at the same time, the exposure you get from it is great.
We haven’t stopped. You don’t really have time to settle down. You’re on the road, you’re getting after it, you’re getting your team settled. They’re grinding right now, and they’re hungry. Motivation is really high, as it should be.
Eric Mac Lain:
Yeah. The goal is to make it to December in the playoffs. The goal is obviously to make it to January. I was a little shocked with the calendar release for the next two years and how far everything is pushed back into January. None of it makes any sense to me.
When are we going to figure out how to make this thing where the season ends and everyone can start at the same time when it comes to being able to build the roster for next year? Because like you said, you’re at such a disadvantage trying to figure out who’s going to stay, who’s going to go, and then trying to look ahead to 2026 while also trying to compete for a championship. It makes no sense.
Mario Cristobal:
It doesn’t. I’ll tell you the part that I think is probably the most illogical: you’re players are on campus — the new ones — your coaches are on the road recruiting. You spend all this time recruiting them, their parents come here to drop them off, and you’re not around. You’re on the road. That’s not a way you want to start things off.
And to your point as well, it all comes together in a way where it’s not helping the game. I think everybody’s trying to make it better, but we don’t have an answer. It starts with the calendar.
If we’re going to play these games, we’ve got to move up. We’ve got to have only one bye week and roll through and end this thing on January 1st or the week after. That’s the best solution we could have for now. I know there are TV issues and contracts, but that seems to be the best alternative.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, does anybody ask y’all — I don’t even know who does it, the NCAA or who’s in charge — but do coaches have any input or any say in this thing? Because you’re the one dealing with it. I would think they’d want your input.
Mario Cristobal:
I think we have input. I just don’t think we have impact. And that’s a massive difference between the two.
I think it’s working its way there. I do think there’s effort behind it. I just think it has to do with the investment behind these games in December and January that keep pushing this thing back.
And it’s affecting things where we’re not maximizing player development, talent acquisition, roster retention. Those things are taking big hits.
Aaron Murray:
From my perspective — not being an ACC guy, but being a big fan of college football and growing up in a time where the U was as big as anything out there — I lived in Miami, family’s from Miami, I knew all about Miami football.
Even with the limited time you had to focus on the portal, you hit some mega home runs. In your mind over the last two seasons and what you’ve built, is the brand of the U back? Because to me, it feels as **** as it did when I was a 10-year-old in Miami looking at college football and who the big boys were playing week in and week out.
Eric Mac Laim:
Hey, coach, that’s my bad. I should have told him. That’s on me. He should have told me. That [the U is Back] is the ultimate cringe line for coach.
Aaron Murray:
My bad. I missed something. My bad.
Aaron Murray:
How about this — are you happy with where you are, coach?
Mario Cristobal:
Yeah. I think we’re always trying to get to the point where Miami is here and progressing in really big, powerful strides.
I’ve been away for 20 years, more than that, and I would watch from afar all the talk — “Are you going to be back?” What do you mean back? We don’t go backwards. We go forward.
Those days will never be duplicated. We had a cast of characters that was made for TV. The 30 for 30 is the rated PG version compared to the reality of those times.
But I do think we can take that and elevate those standards. We take those principles and values, bring them into modern time, and go to work — but never make it heavier by placing all those legends on the shoulders of our guys. Instead, making sure they become the modern-day legacy guys and legends.
Eric Mac Lain:
That perspective is obviously important for the man running the show. During your run in the playoff, I was able to spend time with a lot of those legends and have great conversations, and they echo all that.
They’ll say, it’s not our fault we set that precedent and became Hall of Famers and won national championships — but they don’t want to put extra pressure on guys that already have pressure.
It’s fascinating to me, having covered you so intimately, that you’d think there’s so much pressure on the outside for Miami to be great. There is way more pressure internally — guys like yourself and former players put all those things on.
So I don’t think Miami needs anybody else’s help to be hungry and create chips and fire, because it’s there every day. You look in those rafters and you’re indoor, and to match that, to be one of those one day, I think is plenty motivation for these guys.
Mario Cristobal:
The expectations from inside are always greater than outside.
I’ve never been affected by outside stuff. When people bring up “What about the outside?” — if they aren’t in there with us at 5:00 a.m. kicking *** in workouts, grinding — or, god forbid, in a hospital overcoming an injury — if they’re not in that, they’re not part of the equation.
The outside stuff gets blocked out. What’s neat now is the progress. Rueben Bain’s going to get a banner. Francis Mauigoa is going to get a banner beside Cam Ward’s banner. The draft keeps looking different. Now we have 10-plus combine invites. Now April is starting to match up with the season.
When we first got here, there was one guy drafted in the seventh round. Never forget — I was recruiting somewhere and we had to tell the pilot, “Hey, stop.” One of those private planes in and out of different places. He told us to stop because the seventh round’s almost over and if we don’t have a guy drafted, Miami’s draft streak is over.
I’m sitting on the plane, I look over at Dennis Smith, who serves as our general manager. I’m like, “Brother, if we don’t overhaul this roster, our butts are going to be sitting on a plane going somewhere else.” That’s where so many people have been involved in doing that. With roster comes people. With people comes culture.
Eric Mac Lain:
Quarterback position — I’ve got to talk about that. You go from Cam Ward, you get him in the transfer portal, absolute home run. Carson Beck, we talked about him leading up to the playoffs, how good he was coming in from Georgia, overcoming the injury, going in there with limited reps in the offseason to do what he did all season long.
And now you get Darian Mensah — I had one of his games this year, had a chance to sit down with him. What an incredible young man. Humble, hardworking, incredibly talented — from his time at Tulane to Duke last year.
How do you get him going? What’s the recipe that proved useful for Cam, then Carson, and now Darian heading into 2026?
Mario Cristobal:
A lot of people have worked really hard to help develop these guys. People are seeing: Cam Ward was projected fifth, sixth, seventh — and now first overall.
Let’s switch gears — another position: Akheem Mesidor, Day 3 guy, all of a sudden he’s launched himself into the first round. And it’s not just development — the strength room, nutrition, everything else. It’s a supporting cast.
The more you win, everybody else’s stock elevates. That’s catching fire. It’s not a bad thing to live in Coral Gables either — it’s one of one.
The private school setting, Coral Gables — it’s a quiet, take-care-of-your-business environment, and access to NIL and business opportunities. We’re postured perfectly for the future of college football.
Elite talent has been coming this way and we hammer them hard, and they’re into it. It’s a good combination. Stay humble, keep our mouth shut, work our butts off, and let’s go get better. That’s all we’re focused on — getting better.
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach, everything you just alluded to — I’ve said this many times post-national championship — Miami is on their way to a decade of dominance. The way you’re structured, the way college football is right now.
Maybe the most important thing people aren’t talking about is retention. You were just in a national championship and I don’t think you lost a starter to the portal. I think you kept everybody you wanted to keep, and then some with portal additions.
That speaks louder than any win. It shows people want to be there. People who could go start and be paid handsomely other places want to be at the University of Miami. How do you look at that? Do you take pride in it? Is it something you’ve been working toward?
Mario Cristobal:
I appreciate you saying that. It’s the biggest part — roster retention.
We feel strongly about who we recruited. Let’s make sure we’re not developing for some other team, right?
The starters, the front-line guys — they returned. A couple guys had NFL opportunities and chose what I call the Akheem Mesidor model, the Cam Ward model, to raise their status. That’s unfinished business for them, and unfinished business for what we want — to hold up the big trophy.
We’re not going to speak about that. We’re going to speak about 1-0 and our dailies. But there’s unfinished business here when you don’t win that last one.
The culture right now is everybody-driven. Everybody has a responsibility to bring energy. There’s no BS. There’s no faking it. It’s driven people that want to be 1-0 at everything we do.
We’ve got the right people. The talent is getting better every year. We’ve got to bring it together and galvanize it. It starts with the trenches. We’ve got to get the big boys going.
Eric Mac Lain:
Coach, I know how hard you work and how hard you push your staff and your players. Maybe it’s too early — it’s February — but maybe before, you’re kicking *** and pushing people, and they’re like, “What is this guy doing? Why are we doing this so hard?”
Now that you’ve been to the natty, have you seen where you don’t have to press in different places because everybody understands the standard you’ve set for four or five years now? Have you seen an elevation there?
Mario Cristobal:
We have, but we also feel we have to press even more. Human nature is what it is.
You go around town now and it’s, “Hey, great job,” and I don’t want to hear any of that. I really don’t.
Now we have activated a fan base and a community that is out of their minds — awesome energy. But players are players, and we have a unique way of bringing everybody back down to earth with how we practice and how we get after it. And they want that.
That group we just had — they couldn’t be pushed hard enough. They wanted more and more and more. So these guys now, they’re going to find out. We’re going to find out. We’re going to grow together, develop, surround them with the best of the best, and get the most out of everybody because we owe that to them.
It starts with everything — top down. Everybody’s got to carry that message to their room and make sure it gets applied daily. No room for complacency. No slogans, none of that. It’s one team, and we do it a certain way.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, you talked today about players improving draft stock, winning awards year to year. We don’t talk enough about coaches developing.
As you look at your time as a head coach and what you’ve been able to do at Miami, where have you grown? Where did you grow the most this year? And where can you get better heading into next season after learning what you learned making it to the national championship?
Mario Cristobal:
I want to get better at everything.
I never walk into a room saying, “Vince Lombardi has arrived and this is the perfect way to do it.” I approach every aspect of the game — who we bring in, how we evaluate, how we game plan, how I can assist, how we coach, how we organize and orchestrate practice, to the game itself, the messaging, critical downs and decisions.
We go through a slew of scenarios daily and weekly that end up playing out big for us. We consistently review and want to get better. So I want to get better at everything. We take the lifelong learner approach. We’ve got miles to go.
Eric Mac Lain:
Yeah, and it’s an important topic because nobody talks about it. Coaches are learning every day. Your staff — you hope everyone’s getting better year to year. You have to go through hard stuff to figure it out. You have to go through situations and scenarios until you do.
Coach, as we look at this past season, it was kind of a season of three parts. You have the nuclear start — you come out the gates, beat Notre Dame at home, hammer Florida, beat Florida State at Florida State, and you’re on top of the world — number two in the country, I believe.
Then there’s the couple of losses, and then you go into playoff mode after that SMU game. Hearing you speak, that team understood, if we do not play our absolute best, it’s over.
What shifted? What happened to that team following that SMU loss in Dallas?
Mario Cristobal:
The realization that we have really good people working really hard, but we’re losing in the margins — and the whole world was coming down on our guys.
So we made a conscious decision. Number one, as a staff, we were going to be our players’ best advocates, their biggest fans, their biggest supporters. We were going to be relentless teachers. Yelling and screaming wasn’t going to get it done.
We committed to unbelievable energy. That first practice after the SMU loss — it was like, “Wow.” Ball security is a little bit better. The efficiency of our passing game is a little bit better. Yards after contact are better. Finishing through tackles and scoring is better.
We started getting better in the margins because we lost games in the margins. We had the ball at the end of the game to win against Louisville. We had the ball with a chance to win against SMU. We didn’t complete it. We were going to find those margins.
One day at a time, we brought it. Credit to everybody in the building. Great job.
Aaron Murray:
Coach, last one for me. One of my favorite players — I may need to go down to Miami and get a jersey. Malachi Toney has become one of the favorites in the country. The way he plays — unselfish. The blocking, catching, throwing — he does it all. If you could get me a signed jersey, I’d appreciate that.
Mario Cristobal:
I take cash and certified checks only.
Aaron Murray:
We’ll support some NIL deal from Malachi.
But what more can you squeeze out of him next year? First year you’re still learning what the kid can and can’t do, and it seems like he can do everything. How much more excited are you in year two to have him, and what more can you put on his plate?
Mario Cristobal:
Toward the end of the year, we were getting a lot of bracket coverage — trail coverage on him. So now we’re continuing to enhance the pieces around him. Our run game — that’s going to be hard to stop. And we’re getting some size and speed outside.
I thought our outside guys last year, CJ and Keelan, those guys were awesome. If CJ doesn’t get hurt — he’s going to have a great NFL career. So is Keelan.
But the parts around Malachi, and the continued development of our next quarterback — and mind you, the young quarterback room is awesome — as much as we love Darian and think he’ll be a difference maker, he’s also going to help develop those young guys because we’re poised to continue the influx of high school recruiting and impact.
I don’t know where to start with Malachi. You saw him throw — he was 15/15 in the state title game in high school before they yanked him because he had six touchdowns and said, “All right, buddy. You’re done.”
Maybe we should talk about, do we need to take another quarterback? Is he going to get in the future?
But the best part about him is his humility and his desire to make this team elite. And let’s call it what it is: it’s Saturday, and for guys that have a certain amount of plays — five, six, 700 — we’re trying to eliminate some of the hard angle cutting and high-impact stuff on their joints.
I’m out here working on Saturday, and guess who’s out there leading the charge — throwing and catching and running all over the place. So I think Darian Mensah enjoyed throwing to him for the first time.
Eric Mac Lain:
I’m sure he does. And he’s got a couple good teammates out there too. That’s going to be fun.
Coach, last one — and so grateful for your time — overall, your message not only to Canes fans, but more in particular your players for '26 and what’s next that we’re going to see coming out the gates early.
Mario Cristobal:
One thing — and you don’t have time after you close the season, you’re on the road again — you don’t have time to thank people.
Man, I’m so grateful. Beyond words. Number one, these players. Enduring 5-7, 7-5, coming back to work, they recruited for us, they put together the team, and then fighting through all that stuff — one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Maybe the best coaching experience I’ve ever had, being around these guys and watching them elevate Miami to another level.
Going forward, the momentum — the positive anger right now to improve, to push, to grind — that’s at an all-time high.
The community is on fire about the Miami Hurricanes. It feels like when I was a player here — it’s a fever and it’s spreading. The support of the pro teams in town — you feel that. To have the Panthers come out — Big Matt [Tkachuk]— it’s great, and it adds to the drive.
We’re very driven. All we want to do is keep our mouth shut, go to work, focus on us and nothing else, go get better, and do right by our teammates and this community.
