Want to hear from Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal one more time before the team takes on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons? Check out his interview down below with Joe Zagacki.
On the win over FAMU: Guys came out, played hard, took care of business. A lot of guys got reps, and all focus on Wake Forest.
On the energy against FAMU: Yeah, a lot of guys earned playing time, and when the opportunity came, they took advantage of it, and they executed at a fairly high level and developed a lot of guys and found ourselves in a position where, hey, there's a couple more guys we feel need to get pushed up, some other guys that need to. Overall, a very positive day.
On Miami playing to its standard against FAMU: I think that the energy was right. Certainly some things that we worked on showed up in a positive way, and then a lot of other things showed up that we have to work on. So all in all, a day at the football office, right? Things that were positive, things that we need to work on, back to work.
On JJ Dunnigan: Physical, triggers quickly, understands our schemes, very versatile, can play just about every position back there. Just getting started, really excited for him.
On how satisfied he was with the defensive back group: Solid first day together, right, with that new group out there in that particular rotation, and then played a bunch of other guys that are certainly going to earn themselves more playing time in the coming games. So all in all, positive progress and more progress to be made.
On Vance Spafford incredible catch: Yeah, he did it in high school all the time, so it was great to see him do it, and for, I believe, his first collegiate touchdown. But an incredible catch. Certainly you saw how excited the entire team was for him. Popular guy because he's a hard worker, does the right things, so really happy for him.
On Javian Mallory: Hits it hard and a hard guy to tackle. And again, he really runs behind his pads. He reads things really well, is really instinctive, and he's just getting going. Really does a really good job in protection as well.
On Armondo Blount: Yeah, he is the standard for effort. I mean, if you're looking for a guy that, you know, someone that does it the way it's supposed to be done, with attitude and effort, just maniacal, just get after type of guy, that's Armondo Blount.
On Luke Nickel and Dereon Coleman: Luke really played well, from his reads, from his command of the offense, him handling things at the line of scrimmage, and of course, making those throws that he made. Just a really positive day for him, and certainly Dereon got in there as well and made some plays also. So a lot of guys, they're supporting cast, they got their opportunities as well. So we got a chance to see a lot and evaluate a lot of guys.
On the starters helping younger players get reps: You know, I think the frontline guys now recognize the amount of pride taken, and when you have an opportunity to play to the highest level and put your team in a position where others can get a chance to play, it's extremely rewarding. Those guys spend the same amount of hours around us. They put in the same amount of time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into it, and to actually give them the opportunity to set foot on the field in a game, live action, that's priceless, invaluable, and certainly some memories those guys will cherish forever.
On the first wave players rooting for the third wave players: Yeah, so I think it spoke highly of the camaraderie of the team, how our team is becoming more and more galvanized. Nobody took off any shoulder pads. No one was mailed it in. Everybody was still engaged, and they were coaching and cheering on the other guys and getting legitimately excited that those guys were competing and executing some really good stuff. So all in all, just a very positive experience.
On never being satisfied: Without a doubt. I mean, this is college football. Every week is playoff football. You know, there's no waiting for the playoffs to begin in December. It's now, right? Every game has that much value attached to it. So the more that you can understand that and have your team gain maturity as it develops, those are the things that are really critical to your team continuing to get better, because you have to get better as the year goes on, right? You have to develop the guys that maybe haven't played as much because you're going to sustain issues, right, in terms of injuries or whatnot, and you better be able to put the right guys on the field that can perform at a high level. So maturity, that's a big one, big word.
On treating every game like Playoff Football: Yeah, the entire organization has to understand that, and if players and coaches don't understand that, they got to go somewhere else, just being honest with you, because that's just the way things are. That's the reality of the matter. And we only have these guys for four hours a day, and every second of those four hours has to be intentional. You got to have purpose behind it, because if you're not at the top of your game, as you probably saw this past weekend, you can take one on the chin, right? And who knows what that can cost you down the line. And you don't need to learn hard lessons that you can avoid by just keeping a very high standard and eliminating complacency.
On Miami’s defense looking for turnovers: Obviously we got to do a better job, right, to knock it out, and we've been really close on some fingertip stuff that we could come down with, and we haven't gotten it going at the same level that we did a year ago, but that's okay. Just keep working the process and the things that create those things. Ball disruption and ball security are always at the top of the priority list.
On strength and conditioning: Yeah, I mean, Coach Ervin Young and his staff do an awesome job. Eric Renaghan, sports science, they do a great job. Everybody in nutrition, the training room, I mean these guys, Pete, Matt, Vinny, they all in on making sure that our players get the absolute best, and you have to be vertically aligned, right? There has to be communication. We can have disagreements, but we have to, at the end of the day, agree to the things that are best for the players and the football team, and we invest a lot of time in meeting and planning and whatnot, and so far it's paid off, and it has to continue to pay off. It's a long season. We're entering chapter three, right, of this deal, and so I'll focus on Wake Forest.
Check out the rest of the interview down below:
On the win over FAMU: Guys came out, played hard, took care of business. A lot of guys got reps, and all focus on Wake Forest.
On the energy against FAMU: Yeah, a lot of guys earned playing time, and when the opportunity came, they took advantage of it, and they executed at a fairly high level and developed a lot of guys and found ourselves in a position where, hey, there's a couple more guys we feel need to get pushed up, some other guys that need to. Overall, a very positive day.
On Miami playing to its standard against FAMU: I think that the energy was right. Certainly some things that we worked on showed up in a positive way, and then a lot of other things showed up that we have to work on. So all in all, a day at the football office, right? Things that were positive, things that we need to work on, back to work.
On JJ Dunnigan: Physical, triggers quickly, understands our schemes, very versatile, can play just about every position back there. Just getting started, really excited for him.
On how satisfied he was with the defensive back group: Solid first day together, right, with that new group out there in that particular rotation, and then played a bunch of other guys that are certainly going to earn themselves more playing time in the coming games. So all in all, positive progress and more progress to be made.
On Vance Spafford incredible catch: Yeah, he did it in high school all the time, so it was great to see him do it, and for, I believe, his first collegiate touchdown. But an incredible catch. Certainly you saw how excited the entire team was for him. Popular guy because he's a hard worker, does the right things, so really happy for him.
On Javian Mallory: Hits it hard and a hard guy to tackle. And again, he really runs behind his pads. He reads things really well, is really instinctive, and he's just getting going. Really does a really good job in protection as well.
On Armondo Blount: Yeah, he is the standard for effort. I mean, if you're looking for a guy that, you know, someone that does it the way it's supposed to be done, with attitude and effort, just maniacal, just get after type of guy, that's Armondo Blount.
On Luke Nickel and Dereon Coleman: Luke really played well, from his reads, from his command of the offense, him handling things at the line of scrimmage, and of course, making those throws that he made. Just a really positive day for him, and certainly Dereon got in there as well and made some plays also. So a lot of guys, they're supporting cast, they got their opportunities as well. So we got a chance to see a lot and evaluate a lot of guys.
On the starters helping younger players get reps: You know, I think the frontline guys now recognize the amount of pride taken, and when you have an opportunity to play to the highest level and put your team in a position where others can get a chance to play, it's extremely rewarding. Those guys spend the same amount of hours around us. They put in the same amount of time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into it, and to actually give them the opportunity to set foot on the field in a game, live action, that's priceless, invaluable, and certainly some memories those guys will cherish forever.
On the first wave players rooting for the third wave players: Yeah, so I think it spoke highly of the camaraderie of the team, how our team is becoming more and more galvanized. Nobody took off any shoulder pads. No one was mailed it in. Everybody was still engaged, and they were coaching and cheering on the other guys and getting legitimately excited that those guys were competing and executing some really good stuff. So all in all, just a very positive experience.
On never being satisfied: Without a doubt. I mean, this is college football. Every week is playoff football. You know, there's no waiting for the playoffs to begin in December. It's now, right? Every game has that much value attached to it. So the more that you can understand that and have your team gain maturity as it develops, those are the things that are really critical to your team continuing to get better, because you have to get better as the year goes on, right? You have to develop the guys that maybe haven't played as much because you're going to sustain issues, right, in terms of injuries or whatnot, and you better be able to put the right guys on the field that can perform at a high level. So maturity, that's a big one, big word.
On treating every game like Playoff Football: Yeah, the entire organization has to understand that, and if players and coaches don't understand that, they got to go somewhere else, just being honest with you, because that's just the way things are. That's the reality of the matter. And we only have these guys for four hours a day, and every second of those four hours has to be intentional. You got to have purpose behind it, because if you're not at the top of your game, as you probably saw this past weekend, you can take one on the chin, right? And who knows what that can cost you down the line. And you don't need to learn hard lessons that you can avoid by just keeping a very high standard and eliminating complacency.
On Miami’s defense looking for turnovers: Obviously we got to do a better job, right, to knock it out, and we've been really close on some fingertip stuff that we could come down with, and we haven't gotten it going at the same level that we did a year ago, but that's okay. Just keep working the process and the things that create those things. Ball disruption and ball security are always at the top of the priority list.
On strength and conditioning: Yeah, I mean, Coach Ervin Young and his staff do an awesome job. Eric Renaghan, sports science, they do a great job. Everybody in nutrition, the training room, I mean these guys, Pete, Matt, Vinny, they all in on making sure that our players get the absolute best, and you have to be vertically aligned, right? There has to be communication. We can have disagreements, but we have to, at the end of the day, agree to the things that are best for the players and the football team, and we invest a lot of time in meeting and planning and whatnot, and so far it's paid off, and it has to continue to pay off. It's a long season. We're entering chapter three, right, of this deal, and so I'll focus on Wake Forest.
Check out the rest of the interview down below:
