Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal spoke to the media after the Hurricanes 33-20 win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Check out everything he had to say down below:
On what went wrong with the offense in the second half: Execution, the simplicity of that. They changed up the looks a little bit, but nothing to the significance where we should be altered in the way that we were performing. I think a big thing that stands out, you look at our third downs in the first half, they were manageable. We had some third-and-longs we converted. But we found ourselves on those four drives that were some third-and-longs. We didn't run the ball as effectively as we were in the first half. Obviously, we suffered a couple of injuries and got to overcome those. You know, Marty went down, Mark banged up, Malachi was limited. So we did not execute to the standard we supposed to.
On the play calling in the second half: They're the same calls and the same strategic, schematical things that we have designed the entire time. And Coach Dawson called an awesome first half, and we were rolling. Those plays were hitting, and now a block short, a hair too late to get to the finish on a block, or to get the ball off, whatever it may be. We were off. We were out of sync. But there was never anyone— he certainly wasn't turning it down. He was trying to call the game to continue to score points, keep a high pace of play.
On what showed up on the iPad after the offensive struggles: Sure, well, you have iPad. You see where the breakdowns are at, and there are breakdowns that you can, hey, we can actually run this play. We just got to make sure we get a good kickout block. We got to make sure the double team stays on. We got to make sure we block run-through. Hey, we should have had a conversion here, as opposed to just sticking with the route that was called. Those things all, they lit up, and they showed up in a manner where we found ourselves in several three-and-outs.
On the defense’s overall performance and missed opportunities: Yeah, they did. I mean, those were really big stops. At the end of the day, it's, I don't know how many plays we played. It was good to get extensive play, because I think with both of those first couple of games that we played, we had no more than 40, 45 snaps for starting units. That make sense? We hadn't played extensive football, extended downs or whatnot. So, but I think a ton of credit goes to the defense for just bowing up and executing at a high level. They affected the passer. He’s hard to tackle. He escaped from a lot of stuff. We felt that we had ourselves another four to five sacks, and that obviously will be assessed and worked on. You got to get guys on the ground. Really elusive quarterbacks, they rule college football. If those guys can extend plays, there’s a lot of people running open down the field, and they did that tonight. And credit to their receivers as well. They make some plays. But you got to get guys on the ground. And when you force fumbles, you can’t have just flat-out dumb penalties on a late hit on the quarterback. So we got a lot of growing up to do and a lot of learning to do as well. But that being said, proud of the effort, because no one ever stopped fighting, no one ever stopped working, and you get yourself a 13-point win on the road.
On Ethan O'Connor: Yeah, well, I mean, number one, he’s a really talented guy who’s developing and becoming a really good football player, and you’re starting to see flashes of what he could be. Now mind you, game one, we lost our two starters, right? Ethan has always been kind of a split starter as well and has a lot of experience. And he was challenged today. He was put on the spot multiple times. He did a lot of really good things, and I think stuff like that continues to build his confidence to go in there and work harder than before, harder than ever, and keep improving. And we’re going to have to do that at every position because, again, we had a couple guys get banged up tonight.
On what went wrong with the offense in the second half: Execution, the simplicity of that. They changed up the looks a little bit, but nothing to the significance where we should be altered in the way that we were performing. I think a big thing that stands out, you look at our third downs in the first half, they were manageable. We had some third-and-longs we converted. But we found ourselves on those four drives that were some third-and-longs. We didn't run the ball as effectively as we were in the first half. Obviously, we suffered a couple of injuries and got to overcome those. You know, Marty went down, Mark banged up, Malachi was limited. So we did not execute to the standard we supposed to.
On the play calling in the second half: They're the same calls and the same strategic, schematical things that we have designed the entire time. And Coach Dawson called an awesome first half, and we were rolling. Those plays were hitting, and now a block short, a hair too late to get to the finish on a block, or to get the ball off, whatever it may be. We were off. We were out of sync. But there was never anyone— he certainly wasn't turning it down. He was trying to call the game to continue to score points, keep a high pace of play.
On what showed up on the iPad after the offensive struggles: Sure, well, you have iPad. You see where the breakdowns are at, and there are breakdowns that you can, hey, we can actually run this play. We just got to make sure we get a good kickout block. We got to make sure the double team stays on. We got to make sure we block run-through. Hey, we should have had a conversion here, as opposed to just sticking with the route that was called. Those things all, they lit up, and they showed up in a manner where we found ourselves in several three-and-outs.
On the defense’s overall performance and missed opportunities: Yeah, they did. I mean, those were really big stops. At the end of the day, it's, I don't know how many plays we played. It was good to get extensive play, because I think with both of those first couple of games that we played, we had no more than 40, 45 snaps for starting units. That make sense? We hadn't played extensive football, extended downs or whatnot. So, but I think a ton of credit goes to the defense for just bowing up and executing at a high level. They affected the passer. He’s hard to tackle. He escaped from a lot of stuff. We felt that we had ourselves another four to five sacks, and that obviously will be assessed and worked on. You got to get guys on the ground. Really elusive quarterbacks, they rule college football. If those guys can extend plays, there’s a lot of people running open down the field, and they did that tonight. And credit to their receivers as well. They make some plays. But you got to get guys on the ground. And when you force fumbles, you can’t have just flat-out dumb penalties on a late hit on the quarterback. So we got a lot of growing up to do and a lot of learning to do as well. But that being said, proud of the effort, because no one ever stopped fighting, no one ever stopped working, and you get yourself a 13-point win on the road.
On Ethan O'Connor: Yeah, well, I mean, number one, he’s a really talented guy who’s developing and becoming a really good football player, and you’re starting to see flashes of what he could be. Now mind you, game one, we lost our two starters, right? Ethan has always been kind of a split starter as well and has a lot of experience. And he was challenged today. He was put on the spot multiple times. He did a lot of really good things, and I think stuff like that continues to build his confidence to go in there and work harder than before, harder than ever, and keep improving. And we’re going to have to do that at every position because, again, we had a couple guys get banged up tonight.
A MESSAGE FROM THE KING,… “Let the Moping Begin”
