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2023 ACC media days

Hoyacane1620 said:




Some highlights:

-Mario Cristobal said Miami’s culture has taken “a monster step up” in the last few months
-seven new assistant coaches and 42 new players — 16 transfers and 26 recruits

-“I think the biggest step we took as a team culturally is leadership,” Van Dyke noted. “There’s 13 guys in the leadership council now compared to six last year.

75% of the team must vote for a player to be on the Leadership Council. Last year only TVD, defensive end Jahfari Harvey, receiver Xavier Restrepo, tight end Will Mallory (drafted in the fifth-round by Indianapolis), cornerback DJ Ivey (drafted in the seventh round by Cincinnati) and punter Lou Hedley were elected to the Council.

This year, center Matt Lee (UCF), defensive tackle Branson Deen (Purdue) and linebacker Francisco Mauigoa (Washington State) were three transfers voted to the council. In addition, seven returning players joined Van Dyke, Restrepo and Harvey: tight end Elijah Arroyo, linebacker Corey Flagg Jr., receiver Colbie Young, safeties James Williams and Kam Kinchens, defensive end Akheem Mesidor and offensive lineman Jalen Rivers were elected.

“Last year I don’t think anybody was saying anything and that was probably our biggest problem,” Kinchens said. “It’s not about being a leader, it’s about holding each other accountable and just being comfortable enough when you say something it’s not being disrespectful or stepping out of line.”


During the off season , the team has bonded while participating in a number of activities: trips to a Miami Heat playoff game, dinner at Joe Stone Crab, a day out on speed boats, a couple of hours at TopGolf, an afternoon at a local water park and a recent paintball tournament.

The Leadership Council has also done its own hangouts, including dinner at Morton’s Steakhouse and a day fishing on a charter boat. Flagg caught the biggest fish — an Amberjack. Arroyo caught a Barracuda. Rivers reeled in Tuna. Van Dyke said he caught Mahi and ate it.

Lee said he’s noticed a change in Miami’s locker room in the seven months since he first arrived on campus in January. There’s less whining and reluctance to be coached and fewer players are defensive when it comes to being criticized.

-Cristobal feels as though he addressed Miami’s biggest needs in the offseason roster rebuild. He wanted to recruit size and strength at the line of scrimmage, bring in experienced linebackers, depth at running back and find playmaking receivers. Some of those key additions arrived after the spring.

“With what we need and where we need to go, we need a great blend of young talent and experienced talent,” Cristobal said. “When you have that, you create legitimate competition and that really is one of the key factors to having a good culture.”


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It has become such common place for people to trash TVD's leadership based on out of context quotes and other narratives that were fueled by haters, but here is an example, combined with Mario's comments, his teammates comments and our own insiders that he truly is a leader on this team. Calling for perspective is hard but we have a good one both physically and in leadership as QB 1.
 
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kcbonnies said:
It has become such common place for people to trash TVD's leadership based on out of context quotes and other narratives that were fueled by haters, but here is an example, combined with Mario's comments, his teammates comments and our own insiders that he truly is a leader on this team. Calling for perspective is hard but we have a good one both physically and in leadership as QB 1.
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FIRST POST ALERT
Sniffing Smells Like GIF by Klarna
 
Angry Ibis said:
It’s coach speak… problem is people overreacting to any of it… elite human beings, culture, physicality, pillars, new Miami…

It’s all what ends up happening on the field.
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I can confirm, even before he was hired at Miami, that Josh Gattis was NOT an elite human being
 
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