On Monday afternoon, Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal spoke with the media, recapping the 52-3 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas and the upcoming game against the Clemson Tigers. Check out everything he had to say down below:
Opening statements: Good afternoon, everybody. Appreciate you being here. I'd like to start off by, once again, huge shout-out to the fans for just being awesome, providing us with an unbelievable game day environment, great atmosphere, causing a couple penalties, a lot of energy, juice. They brought it, man, and we'd love to see them enjoy themselves too. Right? Make it the event to be at here in Miami on weekends. Okay, so with that, a solid win, some growth development for our players, for our organization, saw meaningful snaps for our starters, our contributors, some of the reserves and whatnot, and continued growth, like we mentioned, and then a continued push to improve in the areas, specifically pre-snap discipline, post-snap composure. We were penalized for the most amount of penalties that we have had the entire season, so certainly a point of emphasis. It's not good enough. And also a tremendous amount of emphasis on chasing, finishing, playing with physicality, just flat-out finishing plays, straining to get more out of each and every player to the best of their abilities. With that being said, preparation for a great team, a really talented team, great players, great coaches, great scheme in Clemson. Certainly they didn't get off to the start they wanted in game one, but since then have been playing really high-level football in a lot of different ways. To give you an idea of the last three games, they are 3-0. In that 3-0 span, they've outscored their opponents, double the amount of opponent points in terms of what they've done offensively. They're averaging almost 200 yards rushing a game, allowing only 12 points a game, and forcing five turnovers, holding opponents to a very low third-down percentage conversion rate. Particularly important to mention is their second half. They do a great job adjusting. In the second half, I don't believe they've allowed a touchdown. They've outscored opponents 42 to 6. So doing a really good job seeing what the results of the first half, tweaking what they're doing, coming out in the second half and doing a great job. In the second half, important to note also they're averaging over 120 yards rushing before they've taken over games and have won. So really impressed with them. Also a special teams touchdown for them this past week on a punt return, really dangerous returner, a lot of high-level athletes, elite players at a lot of different positions, and they are playing really, really good football. Veteran defense. I believe nine of 11 starters are upperclassmen, but I could go on and on about statistical data, and I'm sure you guys have seen it as well. So looking forward to a great opportunity. Questions, please.
On Armondo Blount, Damari Brown, Kellen Wiley status: Armando was a little banged up, but he's good to go. Damari, I think he's good to go. Feel really good about that one. Kellen Wiley was supposed to play a little bit banged up, but just has to continue to grow and develop and make the choices and decisions necessary to be a contributor for the University of Miami.
On Xavier Lucas: Getting closer, not all the way there yet. Hopefully good news later this week. There's been a lot of progress, works his butt off, but not all the way there. Hopefully by late tomorrow, Wednesday, early, we'll know. It’s a possibility.
On Clemson’s running back Gideon Davidson: Yeah, we watched them this morning as a team. Just tremendous contact balance. He can accelerate. He runs behind his pads, runs through tackles, rarely gets tackled by the first guy. Explosive. You watch this past week, they run sprint draw on third and long and he just, you know, finds a crease, gets a good wall block right there by a couple linemen, takes off, and nobody catches him. A guy that really has changed. I want to say changed. They already had explosive players, but presents a tremendous threat on any given touch to take it to the house. He did it against North Carolina. He did it against Cal this past week. Just a really impressive player.
On identifying players who stay humble and unfazed by success: It's the eternal search in recruiting. I mean, the inside is just as important as what you see on the outside. It is at the top of the priority list when we are recruiting, and, part of it you look for, the other part you are fortunate as well to find that. And I think when they get here, there's also a very strong culture in place where, like, that's what we do. But again, if they come here, that's similar, like Darian was raised the right way, just made of the right stuff. And when you combine that with the culture, that becomes really, really powerful. You almost exponentially increase their impact. So glad he's here.
On staying locked in and never letting go of the rope: I always try to answer questions where they make sense. I try to digest them first and then, put something out there that's truthful and that makes sense to me. We're just really internally driven, you know? And the focus is so much on, like, our practice, our preparation, making sure that what we're doing out there has to mimic the game, be as hard or harder than the game itself. Because that's what's going to show up. And so do you acknowledge some of it? You have to educate and you have to make sure you bring that to the table if you feel it's out there, if you feel someone's catching on to it, because, I mean, we don't bull**** ourselves ever. But we go right at it, you know? And the best way to go at it is to work really, really, really hard. Like make sure that every moment out there, every practice session has got to be challenging. Because if it's not, then you will find yourself regressing. And I think that galvanizes the team, keeps your mind focused on, I better be on this. And it keeps everybody on edge. And that's probably the biggest part of my job is to make sure complacency doesn't set in, that the noise is, eh, get out of here, and that we are on edge as a staff, as players, as an organization, it's got to be that way, because we play really, really good football teams in tough environments, and, you know, that's why you come to Miami, playing games like this.
On Marquise Lightfoot development: He's become serious about football. I think early, you have two really good players, right? The guys that were here last year, and you have a really talented guy coming in, and sometimes they get it and they're still full bore, like, let's go. And then others, sometimes they drift a little bit. I think he drifted a little bit, not out of, not being malicious, but just being young and getting working through immaturity. But awesome mom who hammers him as hard as you can imagine, and a guy that loves football and loves being at the University of Miami. And then the more he was around, Mesidor and Bain, they really started affecting him here and here, and then you start seeing the habits change. His body change, his investment in the weight room change. And now you're seeing a guy that, you know, he's often mistaken because he looks thin. You know, he's getting close to 240 pounds now, which is not a giant, but for him, that's a lot. His levels in the weight room, his metrics are off the charts. And he sticks his face in there and plays with physicality and getting better. He’s doing a much better job. He still has a lot to work on, but we're really proud of him and with his progress. But we challenge him daily. Like there's no, like he doesn't—we don't let him come up for air. Like it's right back at it, go, go, go. And you know what? He appreciates it. He's up to the challenge, and he's looking forward to going out there to practice tomorrow and getting better.
On Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds: Great player. Great player. Ultra, ultra competitive. His nature, his demeanor. A guy that has already mastered the offense in a short amount of time. Great arm, extremely accurate, great feet, tough, physical, an absolute specimen of a player, of an athlete, and a guy that just finds ways. He can do it all, and he's complemented by some great weapons and a very big physical offensive line and a tight end crew. So he's a guy that certainly has, again, went in there, has not flinched, and has played great for them.
On the tight ends expanded role in the offense: It's that. It's also systematically the ball will find you in this offense. So it's built to where, you know, if you take away one side of the field or a certain part of schematically what we're trying to do, the ball is gonna be, or has to be, spit somewhere else. Darian done a great job—Darian has done a great job with that, understanding where to go with it. And the tight ends sometimes are the primary read, and sometimes are the secondary read, sometimes the third read, and it's starting to find them more and more. But we like to, you know, we self-scout and see exactly how we're doing it by formation and what we are calling as it relates to that to determine, hey, where do we start? Where can it end as it relates to the coverage, and really mix that up. And I think Coach Dawson has done a really, really good job of, on a weekly basis, finding any, you know, areas where we have to break tendencies, and so the ball is being spread out. You know, number one, it's being spread out on time, and number two, it's going around. And the tight ends, when they get the ball, they know. They've done a really good job with it. So they're gonna continue to be more of a focus as we continue to go on throughout the season.
On Corey Hetherman’s quick defensive adjustments and getting Miami’s defense off the field: Yeah, elite coach, elite capacity, like machine-head type stuff. I can really see it and articulate it, supported by a great staff. Communication levels are really high. You know, they understand what to get to players and in a manner where it's really clear so they can play fast. Because you know how that works. If you start spitting out an overabundance of information, what are you going to get? You're going to get paralysis by analysis, right? You don't do that, he speaks and coaches in sound bites, ones that, like any really, really good culture. Every good culture has their own language. The language he speaks resonates, and he just, he sees the field really, really well and a relentless worker. The hours that he pours into it are reflected in the stuff that's going on, and he'll tell you he's nowhere near satisfied. He knows we have to get better, and all focus is on making sure we're at our best, we're playing against a great football team.
On SJ Alofaituli and the offensive line: Yeah, he did really well at center. I think all four guards showed some promise on Saturday. I thought it was a good rotation. Got productive work from all of them. They all had a chance to run, just about, you know, the same amount of plays for the same amount of schematical calls that we made, and assess, back to work at practice and continue finding ways to put out there whoever gives Miami the best chance to win. So it's back to, what we always do every single week. All that matters— all that matters is making sure we are ungodly obsessed with making sure we figure out what gives Miami the best chance to win, and all those guys are in the mix.
On Herbert Scroggins: Yeah, he was awesome on Saturday. You know, he was banged up in the spring, so he missed it, and you saw him start feeling and looking like 30. Last year he didn't get much attention from the media, and that's fine. He don't really care, but if you look down the stretch, he played significant downs for us during, like, significant moments in big games, and always came through. And what I think on Saturday what you saw was an explosive, confident version of himself, a guy who was— I'll tell you what's important to mention: his presence was really felt on the sideline as it relates to just having a commanding voice. We're not gonna be BSing. We're gonna go out there and we're gonna play to a higher standard. So really excited for him. Again, same thing. The guy, he comes from an awesome family, made of the right stuff. Him and his brother Ralph, Ralph does a great job for us as well here at offensive guard. So really happy for him, really proud of him.
On building a culture where the whole team celebrates each other’s success: It's what it needs to be. I mean, quite honestly. I mean, at the end of the day, and I mentioned earlier, I love our fans and the supporters, but our biggest advocates, our biggest supporters and fans have to be the people in the building, you know? Because not everything is always going to be great. And certainly when we go on the road, that's it. You know, we're not packing anybody else on that plane, and that's got to be felt because that's real. What comes out of there is, like, true, just real deal, just love and appreciation for each other and energy, and brothers want to see each other succeed? And that's really, really important. And remember, everybody, even though some guys haven't had a ton of playing time, the guys that finally got a chance, they've been working just as hard as the other guys. So the more that we can build on that, the better. But it's something that needs to be always part of the program.
On freshman getting reps: Yeah, we're a rep-intensive operation. They get here in January this year, all but one player. They were all here. So the amount of reps that they have received, plus those guys were here during the postseason run last year, they had the advantage of repping with us and also seeing what it should look like when it comes time to the season. So that combination is really, really good. And I think the OTAs, the players that they do on their own, all the player-led workouts, I think those things have really ramped up. Because as the years go on and systems are in place, if you have relative continuity, those guys start understanding how to run things when the coaches aren't around. So those reps are higher quality reps, and therefore, at the end of the season, you've probably installed everything about five times. Well, that bodes well for guys trying to play. So we even recruit talented players, highly motivated players. That's really, really important. And we want to up the focus on getting even more mature players. There's some guys that need to be playing, but haven't reached those levels of mental maturity to be a professional about doing everything a certain way. They're not doing poorly, but they're not up to the level that, that you requires you to be at. So that's our job as teachers. That's our job as mentors, to continue to educate them, elevate their routines. In essence, that's it: help them establish elite routines so they can develop and give themselves and us the best chance to win on Saturdays.
On Malachi Toney: I don't foresee a time in his life where he's not gonna get better. That's just his approach in a humble way. It's all about humility with him. He just works at it. There's no magic. There's no secret sauce to it. He's willing to do things that others won't, so it shows up on game day.
Cristobal interview time: (4:30 -- 23:50)
Opening statements: Good afternoon, everybody. Appreciate you being here. I'd like to start off by, once again, huge shout-out to the fans for just being awesome, providing us with an unbelievable game day environment, great atmosphere, causing a couple penalties, a lot of energy, juice. They brought it, man, and we'd love to see them enjoy themselves too. Right? Make it the event to be at here in Miami on weekends. Okay, so with that, a solid win, some growth development for our players, for our organization, saw meaningful snaps for our starters, our contributors, some of the reserves and whatnot, and continued growth, like we mentioned, and then a continued push to improve in the areas, specifically pre-snap discipline, post-snap composure. We were penalized for the most amount of penalties that we have had the entire season, so certainly a point of emphasis. It's not good enough. And also a tremendous amount of emphasis on chasing, finishing, playing with physicality, just flat-out finishing plays, straining to get more out of each and every player to the best of their abilities. With that being said, preparation for a great team, a really talented team, great players, great coaches, great scheme in Clemson. Certainly they didn't get off to the start they wanted in game one, but since then have been playing really high-level football in a lot of different ways. To give you an idea of the last three games, they are 3-0. In that 3-0 span, they've outscored their opponents, double the amount of opponent points in terms of what they've done offensively. They're averaging almost 200 yards rushing a game, allowing only 12 points a game, and forcing five turnovers, holding opponents to a very low third-down percentage conversion rate. Particularly important to mention is their second half. They do a great job adjusting. In the second half, I don't believe they've allowed a touchdown. They've outscored opponents 42 to 6. So doing a really good job seeing what the results of the first half, tweaking what they're doing, coming out in the second half and doing a great job. In the second half, important to note also they're averaging over 120 yards rushing before they've taken over games and have won. So really impressed with them. Also a special teams touchdown for them this past week on a punt return, really dangerous returner, a lot of high-level athletes, elite players at a lot of different positions, and they are playing really, really good football. Veteran defense. I believe nine of 11 starters are upperclassmen, but I could go on and on about statistical data, and I'm sure you guys have seen it as well. So looking forward to a great opportunity. Questions, please.
On Armondo Blount, Damari Brown, Kellen Wiley status: Armando was a little banged up, but he's good to go. Damari, I think he's good to go. Feel really good about that one. Kellen Wiley was supposed to play a little bit banged up, but just has to continue to grow and develop and make the choices and decisions necessary to be a contributor for the University of Miami.
On Xavier Lucas: Getting closer, not all the way there yet. Hopefully good news later this week. There's been a lot of progress, works his butt off, but not all the way there. Hopefully by late tomorrow, Wednesday, early, we'll know. It’s a possibility.
On Clemson’s running back Gideon Davidson: Yeah, we watched them this morning as a team. Just tremendous contact balance. He can accelerate. He runs behind his pads, runs through tackles, rarely gets tackled by the first guy. Explosive. You watch this past week, they run sprint draw on third and long and he just, you know, finds a crease, gets a good wall block right there by a couple linemen, takes off, and nobody catches him. A guy that really has changed. I want to say changed. They already had explosive players, but presents a tremendous threat on any given touch to take it to the house. He did it against North Carolina. He did it against Cal this past week. Just a really impressive player.
On identifying players who stay humble and unfazed by success: It's the eternal search in recruiting. I mean, the inside is just as important as what you see on the outside. It is at the top of the priority list when we are recruiting, and, part of it you look for, the other part you are fortunate as well to find that. And I think when they get here, there's also a very strong culture in place where, like, that's what we do. But again, if they come here, that's similar, like Darian was raised the right way, just made of the right stuff. And when you combine that with the culture, that becomes really, really powerful. You almost exponentially increase their impact. So glad he's here.
On staying locked in and never letting go of the rope: I always try to answer questions where they make sense. I try to digest them first and then, put something out there that's truthful and that makes sense to me. We're just really internally driven, you know? And the focus is so much on, like, our practice, our preparation, making sure that what we're doing out there has to mimic the game, be as hard or harder than the game itself. Because that's what's going to show up. And so do you acknowledge some of it? You have to educate and you have to make sure you bring that to the table if you feel it's out there, if you feel someone's catching on to it, because, I mean, we don't bull**** ourselves ever. But we go right at it, you know? And the best way to go at it is to work really, really, really hard. Like make sure that every moment out there, every practice session has got to be challenging. Because if it's not, then you will find yourself regressing. And I think that galvanizes the team, keeps your mind focused on, I better be on this. And it keeps everybody on edge. And that's probably the biggest part of my job is to make sure complacency doesn't set in, that the noise is, eh, get out of here, and that we are on edge as a staff, as players, as an organization, it's got to be that way, because we play really, really good football teams in tough environments, and, you know, that's why you come to Miami, playing games like this.
On Marquise Lightfoot development: He's become serious about football. I think early, you have two really good players, right? The guys that were here last year, and you have a really talented guy coming in, and sometimes they get it and they're still full bore, like, let's go. And then others, sometimes they drift a little bit. I think he drifted a little bit, not out of, not being malicious, but just being young and getting working through immaturity. But awesome mom who hammers him as hard as you can imagine, and a guy that loves football and loves being at the University of Miami. And then the more he was around, Mesidor and Bain, they really started affecting him here and here, and then you start seeing the habits change. His body change, his investment in the weight room change. And now you're seeing a guy that, you know, he's often mistaken because he looks thin. You know, he's getting close to 240 pounds now, which is not a giant, but for him, that's a lot. His levels in the weight room, his metrics are off the charts. And he sticks his face in there and plays with physicality and getting better. He’s doing a much better job. He still has a lot to work on, but we're really proud of him and with his progress. But we challenge him daily. Like there's no, like he doesn't—we don't let him come up for air. Like it's right back at it, go, go, go. And you know what? He appreciates it. He's up to the challenge, and he's looking forward to going out there to practice tomorrow and getting better.
On Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds: Great player. Great player. Ultra, ultra competitive. His nature, his demeanor. A guy that has already mastered the offense in a short amount of time. Great arm, extremely accurate, great feet, tough, physical, an absolute specimen of a player, of an athlete, and a guy that just finds ways. He can do it all, and he's complemented by some great weapons and a very big physical offensive line and a tight end crew. So he's a guy that certainly has, again, went in there, has not flinched, and has played great for them.
On the tight ends expanded role in the offense: It's that. It's also systematically the ball will find you in this offense. So it's built to where, you know, if you take away one side of the field or a certain part of schematically what we're trying to do, the ball is gonna be, or has to be, spit somewhere else. Darian done a great job—Darian has done a great job with that, understanding where to go with it. And the tight ends sometimes are the primary read, and sometimes are the secondary read, sometimes the third read, and it's starting to find them more and more. But we like to, you know, we self-scout and see exactly how we're doing it by formation and what we are calling as it relates to that to determine, hey, where do we start? Where can it end as it relates to the coverage, and really mix that up. And I think Coach Dawson has done a really, really good job of, on a weekly basis, finding any, you know, areas where we have to break tendencies, and so the ball is being spread out. You know, number one, it's being spread out on time, and number two, it's going around. And the tight ends, when they get the ball, they know. They've done a really good job with it. So they're gonna continue to be more of a focus as we continue to go on throughout the season.
On Corey Hetherman’s quick defensive adjustments and getting Miami’s defense off the field: Yeah, elite coach, elite capacity, like machine-head type stuff. I can really see it and articulate it, supported by a great staff. Communication levels are really high. You know, they understand what to get to players and in a manner where it's really clear so they can play fast. Because you know how that works. If you start spitting out an overabundance of information, what are you going to get? You're going to get paralysis by analysis, right? You don't do that, he speaks and coaches in sound bites, ones that, like any really, really good culture. Every good culture has their own language. The language he speaks resonates, and he just, he sees the field really, really well and a relentless worker. The hours that he pours into it are reflected in the stuff that's going on, and he'll tell you he's nowhere near satisfied. He knows we have to get better, and all focus is on making sure we're at our best, we're playing against a great football team.
On SJ Alofaituli and the offensive line: Yeah, he did really well at center. I think all four guards showed some promise on Saturday. I thought it was a good rotation. Got productive work from all of them. They all had a chance to run, just about, you know, the same amount of plays for the same amount of schematical calls that we made, and assess, back to work at practice and continue finding ways to put out there whoever gives Miami the best chance to win. So it's back to, what we always do every single week. All that matters— all that matters is making sure we are ungodly obsessed with making sure we figure out what gives Miami the best chance to win, and all those guys are in the mix.
On Herbert Scroggins: Yeah, he was awesome on Saturday. You know, he was banged up in the spring, so he missed it, and you saw him start feeling and looking like 30. Last year he didn't get much attention from the media, and that's fine. He don't really care, but if you look down the stretch, he played significant downs for us during, like, significant moments in big games, and always came through. And what I think on Saturday what you saw was an explosive, confident version of himself, a guy who was— I'll tell you what's important to mention: his presence was really felt on the sideline as it relates to just having a commanding voice. We're not gonna be BSing. We're gonna go out there and we're gonna play to a higher standard. So really excited for him. Again, same thing. The guy, he comes from an awesome family, made of the right stuff. Him and his brother Ralph, Ralph does a great job for us as well here at offensive guard. So really happy for him, really proud of him.
On building a culture where the whole team celebrates each other’s success: It's what it needs to be. I mean, quite honestly. I mean, at the end of the day, and I mentioned earlier, I love our fans and the supporters, but our biggest advocates, our biggest supporters and fans have to be the people in the building, you know? Because not everything is always going to be great. And certainly when we go on the road, that's it. You know, we're not packing anybody else on that plane, and that's got to be felt because that's real. What comes out of there is, like, true, just real deal, just love and appreciation for each other and energy, and brothers want to see each other succeed? And that's really, really important. And remember, everybody, even though some guys haven't had a ton of playing time, the guys that finally got a chance, they've been working just as hard as the other guys. So the more that we can build on that, the better. But it's something that needs to be always part of the program.
On freshman getting reps: Yeah, we're a rep-intensive operation. They get here in January this year, all but one player. They were all here. So the amount of reps that they have received, plus those guys were here during the postseason run last year, they had the advantage of repping with us and also seeing what it should look like when it comes time to the season. So that combination is really, really good. And I think the OTAs, the players that they do on their own, all the player-led workouts, I think those things have really ramped up. Because as the years go on and systems are in place, if you have relative continuity, those guys start understanding how to run things when the coaches aren't around. So those reps are higher quality reps, and therefore, at the end of the season, you've probably installed everything about five times. Well, that bodes well for guys trying to play. So we even recruit talented players, highly motivated players. That's really, really important. And we want to up the focus on getting even more mature players. There's some guys that need to be playing, but haven't reached those levels of mental maturity to be a professional about doing everything a certain way. They're not doing poorly, but they're not up to the level that, that you requires you to be at. So that's our job as teachers. That's our job as mentors, to continue to educate them, elevate their routines. In essence, that's it: help them establish elite routines so they can develop and give themselves and us the best chance to win on Saturdays.
On Malachi Toney: I don't foresee a time in his life where he's not gonna get better. That's just his approach in a humble way. It's all about humility with him. He just works at it. There's no magic. There's no secret sauce to it. He's willing to do things that others won't, so it shows up on game day.
Cristobal interview time: (4:30 -- 23:50)
