Miami Hurricanes head football coach joined Joe Rose on 560 WQAM to talk ahead of the in-state rivalry game against the Florida State Seminoles at Hard Rock Stadium. Cristobal spoke on injury updates, Florida State, the offensive lineman and more. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On the noise surrounding Miami being one of the best teams in the country: Yeah, I think projections and crowning people week five of the season is one of the most absurd things in the world. But I get it. There's a lot of energy and enthusiasm around college football, and there's 4,200,000 talk shows, podcasts, and whatnot. So, you know, there has to be subject matter, and I totally get it, and those guys do a great, great job. But the reality of it is we saw a lot of unranked teams knock off ranked teams and turn things upside down. So you keep focusing on all that crap, you know what you're gonna get? You're gonna get your *** beat.
On the Florida State rivalry: This is, ever since I grew up, this was always my favorite and the best rivalry in sports, in my opinion. It's the energy, the intensity, the physicality, the caliber of player on the field, the guys coaching against each other, the fan bases, the state of Florida. I mean, all eyes on this game, always and forever. And they're always knockout, drag-out football games. So, certainly excited to continue preparing.
On Miami's injury updates coming out of the bye week: It feel good to pay off. Ezekiel Marcelin is all the way back. Lightfoot is all the way back. Lucas is all the way back. Damari Brown back. And then the guys that were a little bit dinged up, they feel and look like they're 100% because they had great days of practice. Obviously, Max Buchanan is the one that we're going to be out on. Hopefully he'll join us later in the year. But aside from that, you know, about the ones that happened early in the season. I don't have to rehash those. But you know what, Joe? We went hard. We were smart with certain guys, but we sure we developed three or four players at other positions that can help us win.
On Miami's offensive line and the improved running game: There's a lot of players that are continuing to compete, and I'm not going to label anyone this or that. We're improving. We're getting better. There are levels of communication, execution. Again, there's no one in the country like Coach Mirabal getting after it, and now you head into October, you better be able to run the football, right? I mean, now the weather starts changing, not here, obviously. Here it's always, like, freaking scalding hot everywhere else, and you have to be able to certainly take control of the line of scrimmage against really good teams. So, a lot of work to do.
On Bryce Fitzgerald's transition from safety to cornerback: I'll start with saying this: he's an elite human being on top of being an elite athlete and football player, and he's unselfish because he's a safety and a premier safety, and you know what? He has the skill set also of being a premier corner, and he jumped in there, and he's done an awesome job. And players like that are what allow teams to move forward, progress, make the culture stronger. And whatever is asked of him, he does. He can play nickel. He plays a free, the strong. Sky is the limit for Bryce Fitzgerald.
On Elija Lofton and his development: Yeah, and hungry. Him and Coach Viti, great relationship. Those guys work really, really well together. You're starting to see some of the things that we've always seen in practice. Really tough, hard worker, just physical, athletic guy. Again, I'm not even going to bother praising him, because you've seen him in practice. He gets better. He doesn't care about all that other stuff. He wants to kick butt, get better, and win football games. So really, really proud of what he's done.
On Malachi Toney: He's always going to be going after people more than anyone can ever go after him. He doesn't live in that world about being a target, you know what I mean? Yeah, he's always got, you know, he's got the target on somebody else all the time. So him, that guy, his elite habits, his professional routines allow him to play at a high level and allow him to endure the rigors that come with the schedule, the regimentation, of course, the play count that he has. Again, he's different, man. He's different. But his dedication, commitment to the game and taking care of his body allows him to do so.
On Darian Mensah's impressive start to the season: He just continues to get better, and you know what? I think the best part, this is the part I guess that will answer that question: we finished last week, the previous Saturday, 1-0, and the first words out of his mouth are, Hey, we left points on the board. We got to get a heck of a lot better. We left a lot of stuff on the table. So to me, that's the part that sticks out. We all see the accuracy. We see the arm talent, the feet, the awareness, all that. But those intangibles, that's what's gonna continue to drive us to get better.
On Miami's recruiting efforts: Well, you know what? You got to stay process-oriented, man, because there's 24 hours in a day and you better use as many of those hours as you can. But nothing is more important than your players inside the building. Those are your top recruits, and all focus is on preparing and getting ready to play an extremely talented, a really good football team with a lot of weapons that, again, has always been the most intense and physical game of Miami Hurricane history. So really excited to get ready.
On Florida State's collapse against Louisville: Yeah, they've got NFL talent all over the place, challenging schemes. They're up 21-6 on Alabama. Four minutes left. I think it's a seven-point game. So they've had all the makings of just being right there and could very easily have won every single game that they have been in. But the focus is on making sure we prepare our guys for not only their players, but the way that they use their players. They do a great job using personnel. Their offensive and defensive lines are big and physical. We know they had 10 sacks against Virginia. In the red zone, they've been elite on offense. They've been really good on defense in the red zone as well. And again, they have the odd sack front, the four-down front, bear. You have to prepare for a lot. You better be on point, and we need that stadium absolutely going bananas, rocking like the asylum should.
On the noise surrounding Miami being one of the best teams in the country: Yeah, I think projections and crowning people week five of the season is one of the most absurd things in the world. But I get it. There's a lot of energy and enthusiasm around college football, and there's 4,200,000 talk shows, podcasts, and whatnot. So, you know, there has to be subject matter, and I totally get it, and those guys do a great, great job. But the reality of it is we saw a lot of unranked teams knock off ranked teams and turn things upside down. So you keep focusing on all that crap, you know what you're gonna get? You're gonna get your *** beat.
On the Florida State rivalry: This is, ever since I grew up, this was always my favorite and the best rivalry in sports, in my opinion. It's the energy, the intensity, the physicality, the caliber of player on the field, the guys coaching against each other, the fan bases, the state of Florida. I mean, all eyes on this game, always and forever. And they're always knockout, drag-out football games. So, certainly excited to continue preparing.
On Miami's injury updates coming out of the bye week: It feel good to pay off. Ezekiel Marcelin is all the way back. Lightfoot is all the way back. Lucas is all the way back. Damari Brown back. And then the guys that were a little bit dinged up, they feel and look like they're 100% because they had great days of practice. Obviously, Max Buchanan is the one that we're going to be out on. Hopefully he'll join us later in the year. But aside from that, you know, about the ones that happened early in the season. I don't have to rehash those. But you know what, Joe? We went hard. We were smart with certain guys, but we sure we developed three or four players at other positions that can help us win.
On Miami's offensive line and the improved running game: There's a lot of players that are continuing to compete, and I'm not going to label anyone this or that. We're improving. We're getting better. There are levels of communication, execution. Again, there's no one in the country like Coach Mirabal getting after it, and now you head into October, you better be able to run the football, right? I mean, now the weather starts changing, not here, obviously. Here it's always, like, freaking scalding hot everywhere else, and you have to be able to certainly take control of the line of scrimmage against really good teams. So, a lot of work to do.
On Bryce Fitzgerald's transition from safety to cornerback: I'll start with saying this: he's an elite human being on top of being an elite athlete and football player, and he's unselfish because he's a safety and a premier safety, and you know what? He has the skill set also of being a premier corner, and he jumped in there, and he's done an awesome job. And players like that are what allow teams to move forward, progress, make the culture stronger. And whatever is asked of him, he does. He can play nickel. He plays a free, the strong. Sky is the limit for Bryce Fitzgerald.
On Elija Lofton and his development: Yeah, and hungry. Him and Coach Viti, great relationship. Those guys work really, really well together. You're starting to see some of the things that we've always seen in practice. Really tough, hard worker, just physical, athletic guy. Again, I'm not even going to bother praising him, because you've seen him in practice. He gets better. He doesn't care about all that other stuff. He wants to kick butt, get better, and win football games. So really, really proud of what he's done.
On Malachi Toney: He's always going to be going after people more than anyone can ever go after him. He doesn't live in that world about being a target, you know what I mean? Yeah, he's always got, you know, he's got the target on somebody else all the time. So him, that guy, his elite habits, his professional routines allow him to play at a high level and allow him to endure the rigors that come with the schedule, the regimentation, of course, the play count that he has. Again, he's different, man. He's different. But his dedication, commitment to the game and taking care of his body allows him to do so.
On Darian Mensah's impressive start to the season: He just continues to get better, and you know what? I think the best part, this is the part I guess that will answer that question: we finished last week, the previous Saturday, 1-0, and the first words out of his mouth are, Hey, we left points on the board. We got to get a heck of a lot better. We left a lot of stuff on the table. So to me, that's the part that sticks out. We all see the accuracy. We see the arm talent, the feet, the awareness, all that. But those intangibles, that's what's gonna continue to drive us to get better.
On Miami's recruiting efforts: Well, you know what? You got to stay process-oriented, man, because there's 24 hours in a day and you better use as many of those hours as you can. But nothing is more important than your players inside the building. Those are your top recruits, and all focus is on preparing and getting ready to play an extremely talented, a really good football team with a lot of weapons that, again, has always been the most intense and physical game of Miami Hurricane history. So really excited to get ready.
On Florida State's collapse against Louisville: Yeah, they've got NFL talent all over the place, challenging schemes. They're up 21-6 on Alabama. Four minutes left. I think it's a seven-point game. So they've had all the makings of just being right there and could very easily have won every single game that they have been in. But the focus is on making sure we prepare our guys for not only their players, but the way that they use their players. They do a great job using personnel. Their offensive and defensive lines are big and physical. We know they had 10 sacks against Virginia. In the red zone, they've been elite on offense. They've been really good on defense in the red zone as well. And again, they have the odd sack front, the four-down front, bear. You have to prepare for a lot. You better be on point, and we need that stadium absolutely going bananas, rocking like the asylum should.
