Josh Pate sat down with Mario Cristobal during spring practice to discuss spring practice, last season and more. A transcript of that conversation is below.
Josh Pate: The last time most of America saw you was the end of the national championship game. Very briefly, as a human being, how long did it take before you were able to say, “All right, 2026 season, let’s go?”
Mario Cristobal: It’s a quick turn of the page because you’re already behind on every aspect of recruiting, right? You’re going to have to start your offseason program a little bit later, and that’s already mapped out and planned out, but it still requires a lot of logistical adjustments.
It just hasn’t stopped, and in a good way. But you do find time to assess every game you play, even that one, especially being the last game. Even though part of your team graduates and moves on and some of your coaches move on, you attack that like you attack anything else and find ways to get better.
Josh Pate: What’s the difference in that process versus a normal week when you’re not preparing that team for another game and you’re really just learning about yourself and the players who are coming back?
Mario Cristobal: Just more time, because however someone came at you, anything someone did successfully against you, it’s going to show up again until you fix it. And then things that you did successfully are going to be attacked as well.
So there’s not much difference. There’s just a lot more time, where self-scout now becomes part of that game as well. It’s a pretty meticulous process that lasts about three weeks in terms of self-assessment and self-evaluation as it relates to our schemes and our players.
Josh Pate: That backs you up. Your offseason starts over a month after some other teams. From your seat, how does that affect the way you run an organization?
Mario Cristobal: It’s different. We did a lot of research as it relates to teams that have had really long, successful runs, not just in college. The NBA, the NFL, the NHL — everybody. We’ve been able to take a deep dive into teams that have had long runs and what they did the following year and how it related to their offseason.
We just picked it apart and put it together as we saw fit for our guys. The guys that had a certain amount of plays or were over a certain amount of plays had an extra couple of weeks of regeneration. I’m talking about hyperbaric chambers, massage therapy, mobility work, active conditioning — getting their bodies right. The guys that didn’t play as much or just got here, they went right into an eight-week offseason program.
As we start spring ball, we look like we’re in pretty good shape physically. There hasn’t been a banged-up hangover. It feels like our guys are in a good place and are ready to attack it.
Josh Pate: One of the things that had to drive you crazy the last couple of years was starting fast, then hitting a point where things felt off. Last year, after the SMU game, from the outside it felt like that might be happening again. Instead, you played your best football down the stretch. What changed?
Mario Cristobal: I think that team meeting after the SMU game really kind of changed things.
And I’ll say this: there’s nothing hocus-pocus about our operation. I think it’s very well documented. We work our butts off. We go. We take a lot of pride in that. We were playing hard. Our effort, our care factor, everything was through the roof, but we weren’t playing like we play. It didn’t look like us.
When we met and talked about those specific things, all we did was take those first five weeks and clip out us playing Miami football — physical, violent, tough, relentless, finishing plays. Just cut the lights and let it roll. In dead silence, we watched 10 minutes of Miami playing Miami football.
By the time the lights cut back on, everybody’s eyes were this big. You could feel the intensity in the room. It wasn’t remembering who we are. It was realizing who the heck we are and going out and making sure that, on the daily, that showed up in practice — every ounce of the standard.
That led to a series of high-level, physical, relentless play, particularly at the line of scrimmage, but also the dog mentality of our skill guys. Their physicality was contagious, and I think that combination led to us going on the road and playing our best football.
Josh Pate: What’s it like now watching younger guys on the roster and newcomers watch players like Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor walk out the door? A few years ago, you didn’t really have finished products in that environment. Now those younger players have seen it.
Mario Cristobal: I think it was happening throughout the year. They were trying to grab the rope throughout the year, but guys like Mesidor and Rueben Bain, they don’t give you any rope to grab. They’re going to stay in the game.
And it’s so different, because when we recruited those guys, those guys would wait for us outside the stadium after us getting blasted in 2022. That’s when you have to turn over the entire thing, and we were awful. Those guys just hung in there week after week. They were committed. They were getting blasted, negative recruited by other schools: “Miami stinks. They’re not going to be there.” All that kind of stuff.
All they did was say, “Let’s go, man. Our time is coming.”
During the latter part of the bowl season this past year, we had this group of younger guys for two weeks practicing with those older guys. Those older guys set the standard every single day. Invaluable time with those guys. They don’t fully understand it yet, but they saw it on the daily. They saw the time they spent up here watching film. They saw that their interactions with their teammates were those of guys who were relentless about being champions.
So it was very effective. That itself was contagious. They’ve seen the standard. We’re going to push them, and we’re just going to keep our mouth shut and work to achieve that standard during spring ball. Spring ball around here is very important.
Josh Pate: You’ve been part of a lot of legendary teams as a player and as a coach, and you’ve also had the benefit of looking back on those relationships and what they meant years later. For this first wave of Miami players that helped turn the thing around, how satisfying is it to know that 20 years from now you’ll be able to sit down with those guys and look back on what this became?
Mario Cristobal: It’s awesome to think about what is to come.
We did build this team to be sustainable and to improve as the years go on. We don’t stack talent behind each other. We like to appropriately select and place guys in situations and at positions where they can continually grow and develop. We feel that we’re postured to do that.
Now, that’s easier said than done. Those guys were hardened, calloused guys that went through 5-7, 7-6, then popped 10 wins and then did what they did last year. Nothing can replace that. Nothing can mimic that exactly.
But the way we work has to be that. There’s no better way to get the best out of someone than to provide them with the most elite competition on a daily basis and demand their very best. That’s the mood that we’re in now, which is a little bit different.
When J.J. Dunnigan walked into practice, when Jackson Cantwell walked into practice, they were practicing with us at the Cotton Bowl. The guys who were playing in that game, guys who got their teeth kicked in in ’22, they were out there at Pro Day coaching their butts off, pushing and grinding on guys because it means that much to them.
Besides their success and them changing the profile of the program, they had an unbelievable experience. They’re Canes for life. That’s when the real magic happens, because that thing grows. It festers in a manner where it becomes very powerful, and the momentum is something you just can’t stop.
Josh Pate: People always talk about the style and attitude of practice around here. But a lot of people are reluctant to lean fully into that because they’re terrified of what it’ll do to their depth. Yet you guys played your best football at the end of the year and weren’t terribly banged up. How do you do both?
Mario Cristobal: You’ve got to trust your people, and it starts with a great offseason because you have to be built to be able to train in that manner. Once you train that manner, you can practice in that manner.
We’re really physical and whatnot, but we’re not reckless. There’s a line there, and we come up to it as to how it benefits the team, but we don’t go beyond that line, because it’s easy to be tough with somebody else’s body.
On this side, there’s no focus on winning social media in the offseason. Our focus is to kick *** out there on Greentree Practice Field, knowing that the only way to legitimately cut it loose on game day is to earn it out there. It’s January, February, March, April, May, June, July — it’s all of it. You can’t skip those steps.
We have real, legitimate buy-in into that. Then as the season goes on and your team is progressing, you do have to shave certain parts, but you don’t compromise the physicality part. You may have to pull one guy here and there every now and then, but overall, if you watch our tape, those guys are seeking each other out. They know it’s the only way to be at their best on Saturdays.
That’s what we were striving for, and we feel like we’re achieving that. Now it’s got to permeate the locker room for the new guys, and they got a good taste of it. Jackson Cantwell’s first couple reps were against Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain. I’m sure he’ll never forget those reps, but I’m sure it also put him on edge so he understands what it really looks like at the highest level.
Josh Pate: When you recruit a player and he checks all the physical and character boxes, then he gets on campus and he’s not fully there yet, what is that process like? How often do you still have to drag a kid a little further into the deep end?
Mario Cristobal: We’ve had a really high hit rate on high school players. And it’s our job to teach. You’re just not born tough, and you can’t teach that in the classroom either. They’ve got to experience it, and you’ve got to introduce it to them at levels they can handle and progress and develop from.
When we practice and when we train, we go right to the edge. Right to the edge. It’s the best way to get the most out of your guys. The goal is to achieve a breakthrough as opposed to a breakdown. That’s where the eyes, the consistent communication, the hands-on approach — it goes a long way.
Here it’s about being a vocational teacher. We don’t have a monster facility, and we don’t sell that. There’s Bermuda grass outside, blue skies, weather that’s incomparable, and now we’re building those kinds of facilities. There’s construction in the background as we speak. We’re building a weight room so we can handle your 200-pound dumbbells and all that stuff you use.
But the sell here is still going to be the way we practice. They’ve got to come out and watch it, because it’s unfiltered. It’s incredibly instructional and developmental. It’s also the right kind of demanding. That draws the right guys.
It sounds good and it feels good when not everybody, once they get here, can jump right into it and say, “Hey, this is awesome.” Guys like Rueben, guys like Francis, they ate it up, but they had their days too. It’s our job to teach them. We believe in that.
Josh Pate: What about plugging a coach into that? By the time someone gets through your hiring process, is fitting that standard almost an afterthought?
Mario Cristobal: When I was a tight ends coach here, I had an opportunity to interview with the Jets when Kevin Mawae was there and Coach Schottenheimer was the head coach. It was a 12-hour interview process that was grueling, but I left there going, “This is awesome. I would love to be able to conduct a process like this if I was ever a head coach.”
So yeah, we get after it in the right kind of way. But everybody grows from it. I learn a lot. The person we’re interviewing learns a lot. And if it works out, there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to be able to adapt pretty well, because aptitude, IQ, adaptability — it all has to be high. It has to be in football in general.
We demand that of our coaches because they have to set the tone every day. Honestly, I don’t worry as much about players. I feel like we recruit the right kind of mindset. I’m always investing just as much in the staff as we do the players, because at the end of the day they set the tone on the daily, and they help groom and develop leaders.
Josh Pate: A year ago you had just hired Corey Hetherman. Now you’ve got a full year of production under your belt. How would you describe the impact he had on this organization?
Mario Cristobal: Almost identical to what Greg Schiano did here. Coach Schiano took over a defense here and launched it into the top five over a two-year process. Corey was able to come in and — players make a difference too — but it can’t be understated. He’s been incredibly impactful, not only on the field but off the field.
His ability to generate belief, toughness, swarming to the football, technique, fundamentals, increasing everybody’s football IQ — it’s awesome. At night his room is flooded with guys. I remember seeing him and going, “Man, this guy looks like a Nordic Viking, something out of an old-school movie. Let’s get him down to South Florida,” because a guy like that, who’s such a high-level, elite teacher, our players will sprint to that because that’s what these guys want.
These guys are awesome human beings, super gentlemen off the field. They are hungry dogs when it comes to ball, and that’s what we recruit. I thought the match was perfect. Corey has been nothing short of awesome.
Josh Pate: Shannon Dawson’s been there a few years now. A lot of people just look at a quarterback and see stats, but he ran an offense with Cam Ward, then one with Carson Beck that looked very different, and now Darian Mensah comes in. How much value is there in your system being malleable to the talent in it instead of rigid?
Mario Cristobal: To your point, Shannon Dawson should be a head coach right now. We are beyond fortunate to have him because he’s been awesome for three years. Not many teams in the country have had a top-25 offense for three consecutive years. He’s made it work every which way possible.
On the ground, through the air, adjusting to the screen game, adjusting to open sets, condensed sets — he’s done it all. You mentioned three different quarterbacks. It’s also been three different sets of receivers, a consistent O-line and now a different one, different parts in there as well. Some guys were good at counter, some were good at wide zone, some were good at duo. A couple different coaches coming in as well — those are like his lieutenants.
Putting all that stuff together and having that type of success requires a ton of organization, belief from the players, and flat-out knowledge and IQ to put it all together and call it the right way. He embodies all that stuff. He’s another elite human being. We’re lucky as can be in terms of our coordinators. Both those guys have been difference-makers for us.
Josh Pate: Darian Mensah is coming in at quarterback. A lot of people know the name, but they weren’t all locked in on Tulane and Duke games. How do you describe him as a player?
Mario Cristobal: By the time we finished playing and the portal was still open, once we got a chance to meet him, it was very quick, but very quickly we got to realize, man, this guy is special.
You saw the tape, and there’s always crossover tape, so you watch him play and think, man, that guy’s special. The supporting cast here has been such a huge bonus for Cam Ward, for Carson Beck, and now we feel like we’re supplementing our roster and Darian Mensah with really high-caliber talent-wise.
We haven’t put it together. We haven’t done anything yet, and we’ve got to shut our mouths and go to work. I want to be upfront about saying that. But we feel that he’s a really special player because he really understands ball. Incredible pocket presence. Deadly accurate. Incredibly smart. He can really run it, and he understands protections. He dives into it on a daily basis like a pro.
He quickly got the attention of our players, and if you get a chance to watch this, you’ll see how much trust and how much belief he’s already built in the guys around him.
Josh Pate: For you personally, at what point do you do your own deep dive or self-reflection after a season? Is there a point in the year where that really ramps up?
Mario Cristobal: It’s non-stop. It happens throughout the course of the year. You’re always noting it up, and you’re always taking mini-dives throughout the course of the season.
When you get into the offseason, it’s hard to find time to go and actually do site visits, though we do find time to do that. But every aspect of the game, on every single year, and anything that really bit you — it’s endless. Every aspect. And it’s a very non-ego approach to it.
I’m talking about the entire staff, not just myself. We sit in there and it’s like, man, these parts were good, these parts were OK, and these parts, man, it’s not good enough. That’s probably the best part about our staff. They’re very humble. They want to win.
This will go all the way through the summer. For me, in the month of May, I’m able to go see people or have people come in where I can really dive deeper into certain aspects of the game. But it doesn’t stop. You kind of plan your vacations around places you can site visit. “Hey, let’s go to Philly.” Why? “Well, I’m just going to stop by and see my friends with the Eagles, and then we’ll go do something really nice.” It’s one of those things.
That’s the life of a football coach, and in an awesome way. There’ll never be a complaint here. You have those opportunities, and you take full advantage of them.
Josh Pate: If I were around you for a month and got to see the full spectrum of your life as a head coach, what traits would drive you up the wall the quickest?
Mario Cristobal: I can’t be around people that don’t love to work hard. That drives me insane. Lack of care factor, lack of intensity — this is the best job in the world. If you don’t have a passion for it and for doing everything as if it’s your very own son, in my opinion, I don’t think there’s a place for people that don’t treat this as if they’re coaching their very own son.
Lack of detail drives me crazy too. Not understanding that the percent of the percent of the percent in this particular aspect of the game, technique and fundamentals, will be the difference in you holding a trophy or not. People that don’t fight for that — that’s what I have a tough time figuring.
Josh Pate: Does it surprise you when people don’t have that?
Mario Cristobal: I don’t judge. One thing I never want to do is sit on the seat and say, “Oh, this is the way and that’s the way.” I just choose not to be around that.
Football — I mean, come on, man. There’s nothing better in the world. And then I get to coach where I played. In our state alone, no one can say that. Every single minute of every day dedicated to the University of Miami, it means that much more. I want to be surrounded by people who feel the same way about the program.
Luckily, we have that. I have an awesome staff. We work together. We don’t work for each other, we work with each other. That’s a prereq.
When I was an assistant coach, from Alabama to Oregon, that was my vow: I’m going to work here as if I played here. I’m going to dedicate every ounce to it. At the end of the day, and I heard this from my mentor a long time ago, we need more people that are good for young people. The world does not have enough mentors and people that are good for young people. If you have the opportunity, brother, you’ve got to go. You’ve got to pour every ounce that you have into it.
You still have a life. No one’s asking you to be a complete martyr and give up everything. But the time that’s allotted for your people, you have to completely dive into it.
Josh Pate: Does it surprise you when you look at the temperament of the average player today? They’ve got access to way more information, and it seems like there are fewer off-field issues than there were 20 or 30 years ago.
Mario Cristobal: Yeah, I think everybody is much more inclined to be educated at the snap of a finger. A button. I played with some complete animals, so I have a different perspective. It was fun and they were awesome.
But I think you’re right. I think they’re smarter. I think they have access to more, like you said. And I think also, in the day and age of NIL, they can do things that allow them to recover better, to rest better, sleep better, to have access to more information as to how they can better themselves as prospects for their current team and their position for the future.
I think guys are getting more and more serious about their craft. That would probably be the best way to describe it.
Josh Pate: What was it like the other day watching this place get flooded during Pro Day versus what it looked like a few years ago?
Mario Cristobal: Animal House clip, right? Nothing to see here. All is well. Nothing’s going on behind here.
But it was awesome, man. You know what it is? Promise fulfilled. Validated. Sitting there in those homes back then — and there were a lot of sit-in homes — being able to say this is what we’re going to do. This is how we’re going to elevate it. It’s going to be incredibly hard. It’s going to test you in every way possible. And at the end of this, this is how it’s going to end.
That’s how we projected it to end in the month of March. So 110-plus personnel here, raving about our guys. What I loved most is the way NFL people were talking about our guys — how they handled themselves, how they answered questions, their level of football IQ, their background checks were off the charts. And then they loved the way they played that day, incredibly hard.
We actually made a tape for our players on how we play the game here at Miami, and it’s a flood of incredible highlights from the guys you saw out there. It’s a sign of things to come. Your program and your draft typically reflect each other. The month of April reflects what happens during the season. You typically don’t have poor drafts and high-level teams in consecutive years. Usually high-level teams, high drafts. It’s cyclical.
I think we’re approaching that. All we’ve got to do is work harder, do better, improve in every aspect and just focus on us.
Josh Pate: One of the fun things about college football is there are really good position rooms out there that people may not know much about. People know Malachi Toney. Behind him, from the outside, people probably wonder what else Miami has at receiver. How do you feel about that room?
Mario Cristobal: I feel that room, like the rest of the team, has the ability to where the sky’s the limit for them. But I also know one team that could whoop our butt, and that’s Miami if we get in our own way and if we buy into all the accolades that are headed this way.
The approach is the same, man. I’m the most boring interview in sports, brother. I’m going to say the same stuff again and again and again. Because if the players saw me pouring accolades out on such a widely viewed show, they’d think it was AI first and foremost, and then they’d have me drug-tested to make sure I was OK.
We don’t operate in that manner. But that being said, we do make sure that we praise effort and reward performance. That room has really upped the caliber of length, size, speed, playmaking ability, and there’s an excitement around that group that is real. It’s real. We’ve just got to go out and prove it.
Josh Pate: The last thing I wanted to ask you: when you’re a high achiever and you get close to something, people slap you on the back and congratulate you, but you know you haven’t arrived. When all the praise and adulation gets thrown your way, but your guts are ripped out at the end of the year, does that stuff kind of go in one ear and out the other?
Mario Cristobal: Positive anger, man. That energy burns clean.
You take all those feelings that gut you. You take all those feelings that you know you’re going to pour into the betterment of the people around you. You take all those feelings and you give them a direction. That direction is right there on Greentree Practice Field, and you go to work.
Josh Pate: The last time most of America saw you was the end of the national championship game. Very briefly, as a human being, how long did it take before you were able to say, “All right, 2026 season, let’s go?”
Mario Cristobal: It’s a quick turn of the page because you’re already behind on every aspect of recruiting, right? You’re going to have to start your offseason program a little bit later, and that’s already mapped out and planned out, but it still requires a lot of logistical adjustments.
It just hasn’t stopped, and in a good way. But you do find time to assess every game you play, even that one, especially being the last game. Even though part of your team graduates and moves on and some of your coaches move on, you attack that like you attack anything else and find ways to get better.
Josh Pate: What’s the difference in that process versus a normal week when you’re not preparing that team for another game and you’re really just learning about yourself and the players who are coming back?
Mario Cristobal: Just more time, because however someone came at you, anything someone did successfully against you, it’s going to show up again until you fix it. And then things that you did successfully are going to be attacked as well.
So there’s not much difference. There’s just a lot more time, where self-scout now becomes part of that game as well. It’s a pretty meticulous process that lasts about three weeks in terms of self-assessment and self-evaluation as it relates to our schemes and our players.
Josh Pate: That backs you up. Your offseason starts over a month after some other teams. From your seat, how does that affect the way you run an organization?
Mario Cristobal: It’s different. We did a lot of research as it relates to teams that have had really long, successful runs, not just in college. The NBA, the NFL, the NHL — everybody. We’ve been able to take a deep dive into teams that have had long runs and what they did the following year and how it related to their offseason.
We just picked it apart and put it together as we saw fit for our guys. The guys that had a certain amount of plays or were over a certain amount of plays had an extra couple of weeks of regeneration. I’m talking about hyperbaric chambers, massage therapy, mobility work, active conditioning — getting their bodies right. The guys that didn’t play as much or just got here, they went right into an eight-week offseason program.
As we start spring ball, we look like we’re in pretty good shape physically. There hasn’t been a banged-up hangover. It feels like our guys are in a good place and are ready to attack it.
Josh Pate: One of the things that had to drive you crazy the last couple of years was starting fast, then hitting a point where things felt off. Last year, after the SMU game, from the outside it felt like that might be happening again. Instead, you played your best football down the stretch. What changed?
Mario Cristobal: I think that team meeting after the SMU game really kind of changed things.
And I’ll say this: there’s nothing hocus-pocus about our operation. I think it’s very well documented. We work our butts off. We go. We take a lot of pride in that. We were playing hard. Our effort, our care factor, everything was through the roof, but we weren’t playing like we play. It didn’t look like us.
When we met and talked about those specific things, all we did was take those first five weeks and clip out us playing Miami football — physical, violent, tough, relentless, finishing plays. Just cut the lights and let it roll. In dead silence, we watched 10 minutes of Miami playing Miami football.
By the time the lights cut back on, everybody’s eyes were this big. You could feel the intensity in the room. It wasn’t remembering who we are. It was realizing who the heck we are and going out and making sure that, on the daily, that showed up in practice — every ounce of the standard.
That led to a series of high-level, physical, relentless play, particularly at the line of scrimmage, but also the dog mentality of our skill guys. Their physicality was contagious, and I think that combination led to us going on the road and playing our best football.
Josh Pate: What’s it like now watching younger guys on the roster and newcomers watch players like Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor walk out the door? A few years ago, you didn’t really have finished products in that environment. Now those younger players have seen it.
Mario Cristobal: I think it was happening throughout the year. They were trying to grab the rope throughout the year, but guys like Mesidor and Rueben Bain, they don’t give you any rope to grab. They’re going to stay in the game.
And it’s so different, because when we recruited those guys, those guys would wait for us outside the stadium after us getting blasted in 2022. That’s when you have to turn over the entire thing, and we were awful. Those guys just hung in there week after week. They were committed. They were getting blasted, negative recruited by other schools: “Miami stinks. They’re not going to be there.” All that kind of stuff.
All they did was say, “Let’s go, man. Our time is coming.”
During the latter part of the bowl season this past year, we had this group of younger guys for two weeks practicing with those older guys. Those older guys set the standard every single day. Invaluable time with those guys. They don’t fully understand it yet, but they saw it on the daily. They saw the time they spent up here watching film. They saw that their interactions with their teammates were those of guys who were relentless about being champions.
So it was very effective. That itself was contagious. They’ve seen the standard. We’re going to push them, and we’re just going to keep our mouth shut and work to achieve that standard during spring ball. Spring ball around here is very important.
Josh Pate: You’ve been part of a lot of legendary teams as a player and as a coach, and you’ve also had the benefit of looking back on those relationships and what they meant years later. For this first wave of Miami players that helped turn the thing around, how satisfying is it to know that 20 years from now you’ll be able to sit down with those guys and look back on what this became?
Mario Cristobal: It’s awesome to think about what is to come.
We did build this team to be sustainable and to improve as the years go on. We don’t stack talent behind each other. We like to appropriately select and place guys in situations and at positions where they can continually grow and develop. We feel that we’re postured to do that.
Now, that’s easier said than done. Those guys were hardened, calloused guys that went through 5-7, 7-6, then popped 10 wins and then did what they did last year. Nothing can replace that. Nothing can mimic that exactly.
But the way we work has to be that. There’s no better way to get the best out of someone than to provide them with the most elite competition on a daily basis and demand their very best. That’s the mood that we’re in now, which is a little bit different.
When J.J. Dunnigan walked into practice, when Jackson Cantwell walked into practice, they were practicing with us at the Cotton Bowl. The guys who were playing in that game, guys who got their teeth kicked in in ’22, they were out there at Pro Day coaching their butts off, pushing and grinding on guys because it means that much to them.
Besides their success and them changing the profile of the program, they had an unbelievable experience. They’re Canes for life. That’s when the real magic happens, because that thing grows. It festers in a manner where it becomes very powerful, and the momentum is something you just can’t stop.
Josh Pate: People always talk about the style and attitude of practice around here. But a lot of people are reluctant to lean fully into that because they’re terrified of what it’ll do to their depth. Yet you guys played your best football at the end of the year and weren’t terribly banged up. How do you do both?
Mario Cristobal: You’ve got to trust your people, and it starts with a great offseason because you have to be built to be able to train in that manner. Once you train that manner, you can practice in that manner.
We’re really physical and whatnot, but we’re not reckless. There’s a line there, and we come up to it as to how it benefits the team, but we don’t go beyond that line, because it’s easy to be tough with somebody else’s body.
On this side, there’s no focus on winning social media in the offseason. Our focus is to kick *** out there on Greentree Practice Field, knowing that the only way to legitimately cut it loose on game day is to earn it out there. It’s January, February, March, April, May, June, July — it’s all of it. You can’t skip those steps.
We have real, legitimate buy-in into that. Then as the season goes on and your team is progressing, you do have to shave certain parts, but you don’t compromise the physicality part. You may have to pull one guy here and there every now and then, but overall, if you watch our tape, those guys are seeking each other out. They know it’s the only way to be at their best on Saturdays.
That’s what we were striving for, and we feel like we’re achieving that. Now it’s got to permeate the locker room for the new guys, and they got a good taste of it. Jackson Cantwell’s first couple reps were against Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain. I’m sure he’ll never forget those reps, but I’m sure it also put him on edge so he understands what it really looks like at the highest level.
Josh Pate: When you recruit a player and he checks all the physical and character boxes, then he gets on campus and he’s not fully there yet, what is that process like? How often do you still have to drag a kid a little further into the deep end?
Mario Cristobal: We’ve had a really high hit rate on high school players. And it’s our job to teach. You’re just not born tough, and you can’t teach that in the classroom either. They’ve got to experience it, and you’ve got to introduce it to them at levels they can handle and progress and develop from.
When we practice and when we train, we go right to the edge. Right to the edge. It’s the best way to get the most out of your guys. The goal is to achieve a breakthrough as opposed to a breakdown. That’s where the eyes, the consistent communication, the hands-on approach — it goes a long way.
Here it’s about being a vocational teacher. We don’t have a monster facility, and we don’t sell that. There’s Bermuda grass outside, blue skies, weather that’s incomparable, and now we’re building those kinds of facilities. There’s construction in the background as we speak. We’re building a weight room so we can handle your 200-pound dumbbells and all that stuff you use.
But the sell here is still going to be the way we practice. They’ve got to come out and watch it, because it’s unfiltered. It’s incredibly instructional and developmental. It’s also the right kind of demanding. That draws the right guys.
It sounds good and it feels good when not everybody, once they get here, can jump right into it and say, “Hey, this is awesome.” Guys like Rueben, guys like Francis, they ate it up, but they had their days too. It’s our job to teach them. We believe in that.
Josh Pate: What about plugging a coach into that? By the time someone gets through your hiring process, is fitting that standard almost an afterthought?
Mario Cristobal: When I was a tight ends coach here, I had an opportunity to interview with the Jets when Kevin Mawae was there and Coach Schottenheimer was the head coach. It was a 12-hour interview process that was grueling, but I left there going, “This is awesome. I would love to be able to conduct a process like this if I was ever a head coach.”
So yeah, we get after it in the right kind of way. But everybody grows from it. I learn a lot. The person we’re interviewing learns a lot. And if it works out, there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to be able to adapt pretty well, because aptitude, IQ, adaptability — it all has to be high. It has to be in football in general.
We demand that of our coaches because they have to set the tone every day. Honestly, I don’t worry as much about players. I feel like we recruit the right kind of mindset. I’m always investing just as much in the staff as we do the players, because at the end of the day they set the tone on the daily, and they help groom and develop leaders.
Josh Pate: A year ago you had just hired Corey Hetherman. Now you’ve got a full year of production under your belt. How would you describe the impact he had on this organization?
Mario Cristobal: Almost identical to what Greg Schiano did here. Coach Schiano took over a defense here and launched it into the top five over a two-year process. Corey was able to come in and — players make a difference too — but it can’t be understated. He’s been incredibly impactful, not only on the field but off the field.
His ability to generate belief, toughness, swarming to the football, technique, fundamentals, increasing everybody’s football IQ — it’s awesome. At night his room is flooded with guys. I remember seeing him and going, “Man, this guy looks like a Nordic Viking, something out of an old-school movie. Let’s get him down to South Florida,” because a guy like that, who’s such a high-level, elite teacher, our players will sprint to that because that’s what these guys want.
These guys are awesome human beings, super gentlemen off the field. They are hungry dogs when it comes to ball, and that’s what we recruit. I thought the match was perfect. Corey has been nothing short of awesome.
Josh Pate: Shannon Dawson’s been there a few years now. A lot of people just look at a quarterback and see stats, but he ran an offense with Cam Ward, then one with Carson Beck that looked very different, and now Darian Mensah comes in. How much value is there in your system being malleable to the talent in it instead of rigid?
Mario Cristobal: To your point, Shannon Dawson should be a head coach right now. We are beyond fortunate to have him because he’s been awesome for three years. Not many teams in the country have had a top-25 offense for three consecutive years. He’s made it work every which way possible.
On the ground, through the air, adjusting to the screen game, adjusting to open sets, condensed sets — he’s done it all. You mentioned three different quarterbacks. It’s also been three different sets of receivers, a consistent O-line and now a different one, different parts in there as well. Some guys were good at counter, some were good at wide zone, some were good at duo. A couple different coaches coming in as well — those are like his lieutenants.
Putting all that stuff together and having that type of success requires a ton of organization, belief from the players, and flat-out knowledge and IQ to put it all together and call it the right way. He embodies all that stuff. He’s another elite human being. We’re lucky as can be in terms of our coordinators. Both those guys have been difference-makers for us.
Josh Pate: Darian Mensah is coming in at quarterback. A lot of people know the name, but they weren’t all locked in on Tulane and Duke games. How do you describe him as a player?
Mario Cristobal: By the time we finished playing and the portal was still open, once we got a chance to meet him, it was very quick, but very quickly we got to realize, man, this guy is special.
You saw the tape, and there’s always crossover tape, so you watch him play and think, man, that guy’s special. The supporting cast here has been such a huge bonus for Cam Ward, for Carson Beck, and now we feel like we’re supplementing our roster and Darian Mensah with really high-caliber talent-wise.
We haven’t put it together. We haven’t done anything yet, and we’ve got to shut our mouths and go to work. I want to be upfront about saying that. But we feel that he’s a really special player because he really understands ball. Incredible pocket presence. Deadly accurate. Incredibly smart. He can really run it, and he understands protections. He dives into it on a daily basis like a pro.
He quickly got the attention of our players, and if you get a chance to watch this, you’ll see how much trust and how much belief he’s already built in the guys around him.
Josh Pate: For you personally, at what point do you do your own deep dive or self-reflection after a season? Is there a point in the year where that really ramps up?
Mario Cristobal: It’s non-stop. It happens throughout the course of the year. You’re always noting it up, and you’re always taking mini-dives throughout the course of the season.
When you get into the offseason, it’s hard to find time to go and actually do site visits, though we do find time to do that. But every aspect of the game, on every single year, and anything that really bit you — it’s endless. Every aspect. And it’s a very non-ego approach to it.
I’m talking about the entire staff, not just myself. We sit in there and it’s like, man, these parts were good, these parts were OK, and these parts, man, it’s not good enough. That’s probably the best part about our staff. They’re very humble. They want to win.
This will go all the way through the summer. For me, in the month of May, I’m able to go see people or have people come in where I can really dive deeper into certain aspects of the game. But it doesn’t stop. You kind of plan your vacations around places you can site visit. “Hey, let’s go to Philly.” Why? “Well, I’m just going to stop by and see my friends with the Eagles, and then we’ll go do something really nice.” It’s one of those things.
That’s the life of a football coach, and in an awesome way. There’ll never be a complaint here. You have those opportunities, and you take full advantage of them.
Josh Pate: If I were around you for a month and got to see the full spectrum of your life as a head coach, what traits would drive you up the wall the quickest?
Mario Cristobal: I can’t be around people that don’t love to work hard. That drives me insane. Lack of care factor, lack of intensity — this is the best job in the world. If you don’t have a passion for it and for doing everything as if it’s your very own son, in my opinion, I don’t think there’s a place for people that don’t treat this as if they’re coaching their very own son.
Lack of detail drives me crazy too. Not understanding that the percent of the percent of the percent in this particular aspect of the game, technique and fundamentals, will be the difference in you holding a trophy or not. People that don’t fight for that — that’s what I have a tough time figuring.
Josh Pate: Does it surprise you when people don’t have that?
Mario Cristobal: I don’t judge. One thing I never want to do is sit on the seat and say, “Oh, this is the way and that’s the way.” I just choose not to be around that.
Football — I mean, come on, man. There’s nothing better in the world. And then I get to coach where I played. In our state alone, no one can say that. Every single minute of every day dedicated to the University of Miami, it means that much more. I want to be surrounded by people who feel the same way about the program.
Luckily, we have that. I have an awesome staff. We work together. We don’t work for each other, we work with each other. That’s a prereq.
When I was an assistant coach, from Alabama to Oregon, that was my vow: I’m going to work here as if I played here. I’m going to dedicate every ounce to it. At the end of the day, and I heard this from my mentor a long time ago, we need more people that are good for young people. The world does not have enough mentors and people that are good for young people. If you have the opportunity, brother, you’ve got to go. You’ve got to pour every ounce that you have into it.
You still have a life. No one’s asking you to be a complete martyr and give up everything. But the time that’s allotted for your people, you have to completely dive into it.
Josh Pate: Does it surprise you when you look at the temperament of the average player today? They’ve got access to way more information, and it seems like there are fewer off-field issues than there were 20 or 30 years ago.
Mario Cristobal: Yeah, I think everybody is much more inclined to be educated at the snap of a finger. A button. I played with some complete animals, so I have a different perspective. It was fun and they were awesome.
But I think you’re right. I think they’re smarter. I think they have access to more, like you said. And I think also, in the day and age of NIL, they can do things that allow them to recover better, to rest better, sleep better, to have access to more information as to how they can better themselves as prospects for their current team and their position for the future.
I think guys are getting more and more serious about their craft. That would probably be the best way to describe it.
Josh Pate: What was it like the other day watching this place get flooded during Pro Day versus what it looked like a few years ago?
Mario Cristobal: Animal House clip, right? Nothing to see here. All is well. Nothing’s going on behind here.
But it was awesome, man. You know what it is? Promise fulfilled. Validated. Sitting there in those homes back then — and there were a lot of sit-in homes — being able to say this is what we’re going to do. This is how we’re going to elevate it. It’s going to be incredibly hard. It’s going to test you in every way possible. And at the end of this, this is how it’s going to end.
That’s how we projected it to end in the month of March. So 110-plus personnel here, raving about our guys. What I loved most is the way NFL people were talking about our guys — how they handled themselves, how they answered questions, their level of football IQ, their background checks were off the charts. And then they loved the way they played that day, incredibly hard.
We actually made a tape for our players on how we play the game here at Miami, and it’s a flood of incredible highlights from the guys you saw out there. It’s a sign of things to come. Your program and your draft typically reflect each other. The month of April reflects what happens during the season. You typically don’t have poor drafts and high-level teams in consecutive years. Usually high-level teams, high drafts. It’s cyclical.
I think we’re approaching that. All we’ve got to do is work harder, do better, improve in every aspect and just focus on us.
Josh Pate: One of the fun things about college football is there are really good position rooms out there that people may not know much about. People know Malachi Toney. Behind him, from the outside, people probably wonder what else Miami has at receiver. How do you feel about that room?
Mario Cristobal: I feel that room, like the rest of the team, has the ability to where the sky’s the limit for them. But I also know one team that could whoop our butt, and that’s Miami if we get in our own way and if we buy into all the accolades that are headed this way.
The approach is the same, man. I’m the most boring interview in sports, brother. I’m going to say the same stuff again and again and again. Because if the players saw me pouring accolades out on such a widely viewed show, they’d think it was AI first and foremost, and then they’d have me drug-tested to make sure I was OK.
We don’t operate in that manner. But that being said, we do make sure that we praise effort and reward performance. That room has really upped the caliber of length, size, speed, playmaking ability, and there’s an excitement around that group that is real. It’s real. We’ve just got to go out and prove it.
Josh Pate: The last thing I wanted to ask you: when you’re a high achiever and you get close to something, people slap you on the back and congratulate you, but you know you haven’t arrived. When all the praise and adulation gets thrown your way, but your guts are ripped out at the end of the year, does that stuff kind of go in one ear and out the other?
Mario Cristobal: Positive anger, man. That energy burns clean.
You take all those feelings that gut you. You take all those feelings that you know you’re going to pour into the betterment of the people around you. You take all those feelings and you give them a direction. That direction is right there on Greentree Practice Field, and you go to work.
