The Miami Hurricanes hit the field today at the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility for the first day of Fall Camp.
Head coach Mario Cristobal spoke to the media afterward. We’ve included the full transcript of his remarks below, along with the full video.
Miami will be back at practice tomorrow as they prepare for their season opener against Notre Dame on August 31st.
Watch the full video below if you’d prefer that over reading the transcript.
Opening statement:
Welcome, day one. Always a lot of energy, always a lot of fun. You know, we're very intentional about fall camp, about training camp. And a strong off-season showed, and a slow start. A little bit, some hiccups, but after that, you know, a lot of positive stuff. And of course, a lot of stuff to correct. But again, we're very intentional about the way we run training camp. You know, we're very big on culture, on establishing our identity and DNA. And this time of year is dedicated to mastering, schematically, our offense, our defense, and special teams, and technique, and fundamentals, and communication, and connecting our teams. So this time is critical, and we take advantage of every single second, every single minute. But the goal is also, as Coach Jimmy Johnson would always tell us, the importance of being in elite shape, right? And football rewards teams that are in elite shape, right? Coach Pat Riley would always talk about the importance of being in elite shape, and certainly, it needs to be hot. We need to compete. It needs to be physical, and all those things will certainly come into play.
On how the intensity levels felt
I don't think it's ever gonna dip, you know, if anything, it always gets more and more intense. I was curious to see, you know, where we've had some, I would say, massive changes on defense, right? Schematically, we've had some significant changes on special teams as well. And then offensively, we've evolved, you know, we haven't been the same offensively the last two years. And we feel like we could take another step schematically, you know, as well as from a production standpoint. Intensity high, you know, you always have to, and not in a bad way. A lot of guys are trying to make plays, so they take it a bit too far. You just got to teach them, you know. Guys want to be intense. You don't want to, you don't want to break off their short and make them too docile, right? You want to make sure they're aggressive. You want to make sure they are intense. We just have to be smart and stay off the ground. We were on the ground a couple of times, but came out injury-free, and we want to stay that way throughout camp.
On Miami's self scout
They work well together, and I think what's understated sometimes is the value of the analysts that we have. You know, the front, I would say, the legwork and the way that they front-load the weak and keep us ahead on self-scout is critically important. You know, every play, out of every formation, you'd like it to look the same when it starts, but end very differently, right? That's the marriage of the run game, play action, the quick game, the screen game, and whatnot. And we certainly want to be very difficult to defend and to do so. You have to be detailed as it relates to your self-scout. Well, you know, those guys, Max Driscoll, Nate Crutchfield, Landon Hoefer, man, those guys are invaluable, and they've done a really good job. And we feel that we're so rep-intensive in spring football and in the summer that by the time we get to fall camp, we feel like we're installing for the fourth or fifth time. So very, very productive as it relates to that respect.
Thoughts on Carson Beck
Like the first day, you know, he himself will tell you maybe it's his first rep or two Might have been off by a little bit and then by the middle of practice really really impressive and Probably even more more impressive than that is his desire to get upstairs After a shower and get cleaned up, of course But getting upstairs again on that film and getting those corrections done to advance quicker and quicker. He's played so much football, He's seen so much, and he really understands our concepts. Well, but he had a very productive first day, as did the rest of the quarterbacks.
On Carson Beck's leadership
We want the best version of that. And it's also our job to groom that. He's a big guy. His presence, physically, is really, really impressive. But he has a way about him where he connects with people. They see his knowledge. They see his football. They feel his football IQ. And they also feel his competitiveness. He's got a very competitive nature. He's got a very strong competitive response in situations. I know you don't get to see how we practice, but we go from team to team pass, team run, team run, play action, blitz, period. And it's like, you know, the guy really did a great job today.
On the excitement of the Notre Dame and how to prepare
The whole world knows when we're playing and who we're playing in Game 1, and that really can't have any bearing on how we approach a certain part of our process as well. Like, we gotta get really good at what we do first, you know? Understand that goal and all the other games that go with it, right? They're all tied into what we do right now, and I don't think that's hard. I think this is a very process-oriented team. One thing that was commented on yesterday was, this is the most we've seen players take it upon themselves to do extra work before, after, both in the offseason, and in the workday. It's a very competitive, hard-working group, so I think they understand. We pound it, you know, to ad nauseam about how important it is to just be where our feet are right now. And when that time comes, 10, 11, 12 days out, we'll be all over that. But to get there, and for those 12 days to be really, really effective, we have to get really good at what we do first.
