UM officially names Alex Mirabal OL coach; Cristobal comments

[lindend]

I don't think there's a single quote that explains the difference between Mario's staff's mindset and the previous failed staffs outlook. OL isn't just an afterthought anymore.

 

[Dwinstitles]

I can only assume that Mirabal did not play Oline in high school. it has always interested me that in football people often coach positions they never played and I can’t help but wonder how they master the finer technique points not having played the position.
All that to say Mirabal is considered one of the best and UM is lucky to have him.

They learn from being around the game of football I guess. Shows u how much they value recruiting its the most important thing in college. As long as u can get the talent u should be fine but u have to be able to get it at all positions. If just bringing in good linebackers u still not going to win.

 

[CFDan]

Played for Mirabal at Columbus. I didn't play OL, but I spent summers and offseasons with him as he was the strength and conditioning coach for 3 years ( he left my senior year). Don't let the size fool you, this man has an intensity and presence about him. When he speaks he commands your attention. At the very least I can guarantee our OL will be tough, physical, nasty, and play with maximum effort at all times. Those things are non negotiable with him.

he was the OL Assistant when i played at Columbus. Alex is a fantastic coach and it's hard to put into words how excited/happy our family is for this hire. We used to wonder if Mario/Alex would somehow make their way to UM. Absolutely incredible it's happened and Alex is about the best you are going to get in this profession. We should all be extremely happy.

 

[WeBallinBoyz]

Bruh I love Mirabal; he knows how detrimental cutting off his legs would be - there’d be like 2.5 ft of him left. That’s dedication right there. That’s my o-line coach ride or die.

 

[skyman]

Played for Mirabal at Columbus. I didn't play OL, but I spent summers and offseasons with him as he was the strength and conditioning coach for 3 years ( he left my senior year). Don't let the size fool you, this man has an intensity and presence about him. When he speaks he commands your attention. At the very least I can guarantee our OL will be tough, physical, nasty, and play with maximum effort at all times. Those things are non negotiable with him.

Had to reread to make sure I didnt write this myself, lol.. I didnt play for him at columbus tho.. THIS 100%..

 

[Trav]

there's a ton.

just think of some of the UM guys ....

Hubbard Alexander (WR coach) was an offensive lineman
Don Soldinger (RB Coach) was a D-end
Dave Wannstedt (LBs/DC) was an OL
Jeff Stoutland (OL) was a LB
Jedd Fisch (QB/OC) was a tennis player in high school

the list goes on ...

Coker was a DB.

 

[DroCane]

Many of you love to **** on Manny Navarro but this was a nice piece.

From the article in regards to Zion Nelson’s future:

He’s hoping left tackle Zion Nelson will stick around instead of entering the NFL Draft. Both he and Cristobal have told Nelson they think they can make him a better player by improving his hands in pass protection.

“I think Zion knows that and that’s something that he wants to focus on and get better at,” Mirabal said. “I can’t wait till we get John Campbell back out there and can’t wait to get working with Jakai Clark and DJ Scaife and Jalen Rivers back healthy. We’ve got some guys now.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Whether it was part of the joke or simply intended to poke the bear, Dan Le Batard’s playful interview with new Miami coach Mario Cristobal last week didn’t make Joaquin Gonzalez laugh.

Not even a giggle.

It wasn’t anything LeBatard said. It was Pipo, the over-the-top Cuban Canes fan portrayed by Billy Gil, a producer of Le Batard’s hit show. Pipo questioned the hiring of Alex Mirabal, Cristobal’s former Miami Columbus High teammate and best friend.

“I wanted to punch Dan LeBatard and that guy Pipo in the f—ing mouth,” said Gonzalez, who played for Mirabal at Miami Columbus High and was the starting right tackle on UM’s last national championship team in 2001. “You could tell this guy Pipo obviously doesn’t know **** about football.”

A slender 5 feet, 4 inches tall, Mirabal does not fit the profile of an intimidating, in-your-face offensive line coach. But he’s one of the best at his craft, whether it’s recruiting great players, developing them or taking walk-ons and building them into solid contributors.

Nine of his former players earned all-conference first-team honors, four were drafted and two others who went undrafted played in the NFL, including Calvin Throckmorton, who started 14 games at guard for the Saints this season.

Cristobal, 51, straightened Pipo out.

“Last time I checked, the Outland Trophy winner, the No. 7 overall pick for the Detroit Lions (Penei Sewell) was groomed and coached by Alex Mirabal,” Cristobal told Pipo on the show.

“Here,” Cristobal later said. “It’s going to be about the big guys — los animalesup front.”

Cristobal, a two-time national championship-winning offensive tackle at Miami, has always entrusted Mirabal to help him build elite offensive lines.

He hired Mirabal when he was named FIU’s coach in 2007, and after he spent four years as an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama, earning a reputation as one of the best recruiters in the country, Cristobal made sure to call Mirabal right away when he was promoted to replace Willie Taggart at Oregon in 2018.

Last month, when Miami signed Cristobal to a 10-year, $80 million deal and introduced him as Manny Diaz’s replacement, Mirabal was by his side. As Cristobal went straight to work on the recruiting trail, Mirabal returned to Eugene and coached Oregon’s offensive linemen through the bowl game. In the meantime, he also recruited for Miami, working the phones to try and sway some high-end recruits to South Florida.

The Hurricanes don’t have any offensive linemen in their 2022 recruiting class but are in the hunt for a few talented ones heading into February thanks to Mirabal, who was formally introduced as the Canes’ assistant head coach and offensive line coach last week.

“I stayed at a hotel the first two days (I was back) and now I’m actually staying with my mom,” Mirabal told The Athletic by phone Friday. “My wife (Berta) has a house that we think we’re going to buy. We’ve got to go through the inspection and all that stuff. I tell everybody, I’ve never moved. My wife and my (two sons) have moved three times. Because we get to go before, and they’re the ones that stay stuck having to do the moves.”

Mirabal’s oldest son, Alejandro, a college sophomore, will be transferring from Oregon to study at UM. His youngest son, Nicolas, will attend Columbus. His sons were much younger when he and Cristobal were fired at FIU in 2012. Mirabal was hired to be the offensive line coach at Marshall under Doc Holliday in 2013.

“I have very little regrets in life, but my only one is that my older son wasn’t able to go to Columbus,” Mirabal said. “My dad went, all his sons went, all my nephews are going and my youngest son will be going there once he gets back to Miami. I don’t know if I was more excited about becoming the offensive line coach at Miami or the fact that I became a Columbus parent. And I’m being serious.”

Miami offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, left, and coach Mario Cristobal may be different in stature, but they come from the same place. (Troy Wayrynen / USA Today)

The beginning​

Columbus is where the story began for Mirabal and Cristobal, the sons of Cuban immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s takeover of the island in 1959.

Mirabal said he grew up in a three-bedroom townhouse and shared a room with two of his five brothers. He said his father made $32,000 a year working at a Pepsi-Cola plant. His mom was a housewife.

“Just hard work, dirt under the fingernails and grease. I mean, that’s what we are,” Mirabal said.

“We had one bathroom, the entire family. It wasn’t a locker room, but it was a locker room. There would be two or three people using the bathroom at the same time because we had to get ready and go to school. But you know what? I didn’t need anything. I didn’t miss anything. Because you can’t miss what you never had. So it is what it is. And you just roll with it. I’m blessed to and humbled to have been raised the way I was. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It’s what drives me today.”

Mirabal and Cristobal met as freshmen. One day after practice, Mirabal asked Cristobal for a ride home. Cristobal’s grandfather obliged. One trip turned into two and then three and then so on.

“You got family by blood. You got a family by choice. He and I are family by choice,” Mirabal said.

By the time they were seniors, Mario and Alex were best friends, leading the Explorers to a 7-3 season. Mirabal weighed 215 pounds and started at guard. Cristobal, a foot taller, weighed only 10 pounds more than Mirabal and played tackle right next to him. Nobody offered Mirabal a scholarship. Cristobal, whose older brother Lou was at UM, had lots of suitors.

Dennis Lavelle, who was the coach at Columbus for 17 years including when Mirabal, Cristobal and Gonzalez played there in the 1980s and 1990s, told Marshall’s offensive linemen prior to the 2014 Boca Raton Bowl what kind of player their position coach was.

“I told them, that mother would rip your f—ing throat out,” said Lavelle, who retired after 33 years of coaching in 2014 at South Fork High School in Stuart, Fla., with a career record of 192-134.

“What I remember the most about Alex and Mario was they were just attached at the hip, the best of friends. A friendship that started at 14 and it’s never wavered,” Lavelle continued. “They’re the same personality. Really tough. Really intense, unbelievably loyal and caring. They’re good people. I don’t know if the public knows that yet.”

Dennis Lavelle was at Oregon’s upset victory at No. 2 Ohio State in September and celebrated with both of his former Columbus High players Alex Mirabal and Mario Cristobal. (Courtesy of Dennis Lavelle)
When Cristobal left for UM, Mirabal attended Miami-Dade Community College.

As he studied to earn his bachelor’s degree in social studies education, Mirabal returned to Columbus as a volunteer assistant before Lavelle hired him to be the junior varsity coach. When Gonzalez, a University of Miami Hall of Famer, arrived at Columbus in 1994, Mirabal was his government teacher and coach. He was making $30,000 a year — with an additional coaching supplement — and enjoying life.

The only time Gonzalez said he saw Mirabal lose his cool was at halftime of a game the Explorers were getting their “asses kicked.” That’s when Mirabal swung his fist through a window in the freshmen locker room. It was a deep cut, Lavelle recalled, to the point where if Mirabal didn’t get immediate medical attention like he did, “he probably would’ve bled out right there in the lobby of the gym.”

“He punched right through this wire mesh and he messed it up badly,” Gonzalez recalled. “I used to (mess) with him all the time about that. I tell him he can never play paper, rock, scissors again because he has to throw scissors every time. Maybe it’s gotten better through time, but he wasn’t able to close his fist because his middle finger would stay open.”

At his University of Miami Hall of Fame introduction speech in 2016, Gonzalez made sure to thank all the coaches who helped him become an All-American and NFL player. Before he got to Art Kehoe, Butch Davis and Larry Coker, the first two names out of Gonzalez’s mouth were Mirabal and Cristobal.

“As a GA at Miami in 1998 and 1999, Mario took my technique to a different level,” said Gonzalez, who played four seasons in the NFL and is now president of Tire Group International. “Mario is the one who brought me Tunch’s Punches. Tunch Ilkin was an offensive lineman for the Steelers where you use this technique. Most offensive linemen are taught growing up to shoot both hands. This guy brought jiu-jitsu into the fold. That’s something Mario brought to the University of Miami that Art Kehoe wasn’t doing and we would work on hours after hours after practice — myself, Bryant McKinney. Mario taught me how to break down film and from (what) a defensive lineman’s responsibilities are. I carried that for all of my career.

“Alex, I really attribute the love of football and the passion and understanding that effort and what you put into it really goes a long way more so than talent. That’s a microcosm for my career.

“I mean, anybody that’s been around Alex Mirabal understands his intensity. This guy, he’s just such a hard worker and he is so demanding of himself that when you see people like that before they even demand anything of you, you immediately respect them. Because you see how strict they are with themselves and how they prepare and how they go to practice and how they do things. A lot of that is instilled in my way of being and the person that I was and the player that I was, and who I learned that from was Alex Mirabal.”

Building Miami​

Mirabal has always considered himself a teacher first and foremost. He said it was Lavelle who convinced him to never leave the classroom because being a teacher would help him become a better coach.

“People tell me you never were a graduate assistant. Yeah, I was,” Mirabal said. “That was 16 years as a high school coach. That was lining the fields, washing the clothes, handing out the lockers, and getting their birth certificates, all of that stuff.

“That’s how I learned how to teach, how to organize drills, and a lot of things people don’t see. I spend more time in my office figuring out, ‘OK, how am I going to make this drill efficient? How many guys am I going to have at practice? OK, I’m gonna have 14 offensive linemen in practice. OK, how many med balls do I need? How many groups do I need? That’s a teacher in the classroom. That’s why I have so much respect for high school coaches when they go to college or high school coaches that end up in the NFL. Those guys are teachers. When you’re a teacher, you’re an organizer. How am I going to get these 20 guys to efficiently do these drills in five minutes? That’s what a teacher does.”

Mirabal, who gets to the office at 4:30 a.m. in season and 6:30 a.m. in the offseason “to get uninterrupted work done,” has done a phenomenal job making players better — whether it’s inheriting talented linemen or taking walk-ons and building them into much more.

At Oregon, Sewell was expected to become a star as a top-100 ranked player out of Utah in the 2018 cycle. But Mirabal took Throckmorton, left guard Shane Lemieux and center Jake Hanson, three-star recruits, and turned them into All-Pac-12 selections. In 2020, when Oregon lost five starters, Mirabal took a group that had one career start between them and helped the Ducks win their second consecutive Pac-12 championship, with former walk-on Ryan Walk earning all-conference first-team honors.

At Marshall, Mirabal turned two walk-ons into all-conference selections — tackle Clint Van Horn and center Chris Jasperse — and had a league-leading eight first- or second-team selections from 2013 to 2017. Before his arrival, Marshall had gone 5-7, 7-6 and 5-7 in Doc Holliday’s first three seasons. The Thundering Herd went 10-4, 13-1 and 10-3 the next three seasons and ranked among the most efficient offensive lines in the country.

Mirabal, who spent the first three years of the six he spent at FIU coaching tight ends before Cristobal moved him to the offensive line, likes the talent he’s inheriting from Garin Justice at Miami.

He’s hoping left tackle Zion Nelson will stick around instead of entering the NFL Draft. Both he and Cristobal have told Nelson they think they can make him a better player by improving his hands in pass protection.

“I think Zion knows that and that’s something that he wants to focus on and get better at,” Mirabal said. “I can’t wait till we get John Campbell back out there and can’t wait to get working with Jakai Clark and DJ Scaife and Jalen Rivers back healthy. We’ve got some guys now.

“When I watch the film, I think we’ve got guys that are tough and guys that have pride. You can see it when you put them on tape.”

He also sees traits he loves in recruits — length and athleticism.

“One of my favorite things to do on film is watch an offensive lineman fall to the ground and then get up off the ground,” Mirabal said. “Does he get up off the ground athletically? Or does he get up off the ground like I say, in sections? When he gets up off the ground, do his toes, knee, hip, hand, and all that stuff have to touch every part of his body to be able to get up off the ground? Or does he just pop up?

“To me, you never sacrifice athleticism. You can’t. No matter how big or strong a guy is, if he’s not athletic, he can’t get himself into a good position and he can’t get himself out of a bad position or a bad situation. So that’s one of the things that we don’t sacrifice. And then, also, you try with length. When I say length, I’m not talking about necessarily height, I’m talking about more long arms. That’s something that we try to look for. Obviously, you are never going to get that all the time. But arm length, because arm length can help you get out of a bad body position. Arm length can get you out of bad footwork, if you take a bad step. Those are things that we kind of look for, and obviously they’ve got to be tough. They’ve got to be physical. I’d rather have to pull a guy back or pull on his leash, then teach a guy. I’m not going to teach a dog how to bite. He’s either gonna bite or he’s not gonna bite. Those are things that we look for. If you get all that stuff in a 6-6, 325 package, that’s awesome.”

The state of Florida is loaded with offensive line talent. In fact, if you take the top 150 offensive linemen per cycle ranked in the 247Sports Composite rankings from 2017 to 2022, only Texas has produced (126) more quality linemen than the Sunshine State (89) with Georgia (79) close behind.

Florida produced 37 blue-chip offensive line recruits in the last six recruiting cycles counting 2022, and seven signed with the Hurricanes. The Gators signed nine. FSU signed two, including St. Thomas Aquinas four-star 2022 prospect Julian Armella, the top-rated in-state lineman in this year’s class.

Alabama signed three of the four five-star offensive linemen the state has produced since 2017 and four of the top six linemen overall.

Ultimately, Mirabal wants to beat Alabama and keep the best of the in-state talent home. But if there aren’t good enough players locally, Cristobal will expand Miami’s reach.

“When I say expand it a little bit, it might be up to Jacksonville and Georgia and stuff like that,” Mirabal said. “The key is the closer they are to the University of Miami, the more we need to make sure that they stay home.

“I will cut off my arms and my legs before anybody considers the offensive line here to be a weakness. That ain’t going to happen. That’s not gonna happen. And I know our head football coach is not going to let that happen, either. We’re going to make sure that that is conveyed when we start being able to work with them daily. Our guys have got to go out with a chip on their shoulder and work and earn the right to be a strength on this football team.”

 

[IndayArtHauz]

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Whether it was part of the joke or simply intended to poke the bear, Dan Le Batard’s playful interview with new Miami coach Mario Cristobal last week didn’t make Joaquin Gonzalez laugh.

Not even a giggle.

It wasn’t anything LeBatard said. It was Pipo, the over-the-top Cuban Canes fan portrayed by Billy Gil, a producer of Le Batard’s hit show. Pipo questioned the hiring of Alex Mirabal, Cristobal’s former Miami Columbus High teammate and best friend.

“I wanted to punch Dan LeBatard and that guy Pipo in the f—ing mouth,” said Gonzalez, who played for Mirabal at Miami Columbus High and was the starting right tackle on UM’s last national championship team in 2001. “You could tell this guy Pipo obviously doesn’t know **** about football.”

A slender 5 feet, 4 inches tall, Mirabal does not fit the profile of an intimidating, in-your-face offensive line coach. But he’s one of the best at his craft, whether it’s recruiting great players, developing them or taking walk-ons and building them into solid contributors.

Nine of his former players earned all-conference first-team honors, four were drafted and two others who went undrafted played in the NFL, including Calvin Throckmorton, who started 14 games at guard for the Saints this season.

Cristobal, 51, straightened Pipo out.

“Last time I checked, the Outland Trophy winner, the No. 7 overall pick for the Detroit Lions (Penei Sewell) was groomed and coached by Alex Mirabal,” Cristobal told Pipo on the show.

“Here,” Cristobal later said. “It’s going to be about the big guys — los animalesup front.”

Cristobal, a two-time national championship-winning offensive tackle at Miami, has always entrusted Mirabal to help him build elite offensive lines.

He hired Mirabal when he was named FIU’s coach in 2007, and after he spent four years as an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama, earning a reputation as one of the best recruiters in the country, Cristobal made sure to call Mirabal right away when he was promoted to replace Willie Taggart at Oregon in 2018.

Last month, when Miami signed Cristobal to a 10-year, $80 million deal and introduced him as Manny Diaz’s replacement, Mirabal was by his side. As Cristobal went straight to work on the recruiting trail, Mirabal returned to Eugene and coached Oregon’s offensive linemen through the bowl game. In the meantime, he also recruited for Miami, working the phones to try and sway some high-end recruits to South Florida.

The Hurricanes don’t have any offensive linemen in their 2022 recruiting class but are in the hunt for a few talented ones heading into February thanks to Mirabal, who was formally introduced as the Canes’ assistant head coach and offensive line coach last week.

“I stayed at a hotel the first two days (I was back) and now I’m actually staying with my mom,” Mirabal told The Athletic by phone Friday. “My wife (Berta) has a house that we think we’re going to buy. We’ve got to go through the inspection and all that stuff. I tell everybody, I’ve never moved. My wife and my (two sons) have moved three times. Because we get to go before, and they’re the ones that stay stuck having to do the moves.”

Mirabal’s oldest son, Alejandro, a college sophomore, will be transferring from Oregon to study at UM. His youngest son, Nicolas, will attend Columbus. His sons were much younger when he and Cristobal were fired at FIU in 2012. Mirabal was hired to be the offensive line coach at Marshall under Doc Holliday in 2013.

“I have very little regrets in life, but my only one is that my older son wasn’t able to go to Columbus,” Mirabal said. “My dad went, all his sons went, all my nephews are going and my youngest son will be going there once he gets back to Miami. I don’t know if I was more excited about becoming the offensive line coach at Miami or the fact that I became a Columbus parent. And I’m being serious.”

Miami offensive line coach Alex Mirabal, left, and coach Mario Cristobal may be different in stature, but they come from the same place. (Troy Wayrynen / USA Today)

The beginning​

Columbus is where the story began for Mirabal and Cristobal, the sons of Cuban immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s takeover of the island in 1959.

Mirabal said he grew up in a three-bedroom townhouse and shared a room with two of his five brothers. He said his father made $32,000 a year working at a Pepsi-Cola plant. His mom was a housewife.

“Just hard work, dirt under the fingernails and grease. I mean, that’s what we are,” Mirabal said.

“We had one bathroom, the entire family. It wasn’t a locker room, but it was a locker room. There would be two or three people using the bathroom at the same time because we had to get ready and go to school. But you know what? I didn’t need anything. I didn’t miss anything. Because you can’t miss what you never had. So it is what it is. And you just roll with it. I’m blessed to and humbled to have been raised the way I was. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It’s what drives me today.”

Mirabal and Cristobal met as freshmen. One day after practice, Mirabal asked Cristobal for a ride home. Cristobal’s grandfather obliged. One trip turned into two and then three and then so on.

“You got family by blood. You got a family by choice. He and I are family by choice,” Mirabal said.

By the time they were seniors, Mario and Alex were best friends, leading the Explorers to a 7-3 season. Mirabal weighed 215 pounds and started at guard. Cristobal, a foot taller, weighed only 10 pounds more than Mirabal and played tackle right next to him. Nobody offered Mirabal a scholarship. Cristobal, whose older brother Lou was at UM, had lots of suitors.

Dennis Lavelle, who was the coach at Columbus for 17 years including when Mirabal, Cristobal and Gonzalez played there in the 1980s and 1990s, told Marshall’s offensive linemen prior to the 2014 Boca Raton Bowl what kind of player their position coach was.

“I told them, that mother would rip your f—ing throat out,” said Lavelle, who retired after 33 years of coaching in 2014 at South Fork High School in Stuart, Fla., with a career record of 192-134.

“What I remember the most about Alex and Mario was they were just attached at the hip, the best of friends. A friendship that started at 14 and it’s never wavered,” Lavelle continued. “They’re the same personality. Really tough. Really intense, unbelievably loyal and caring. They’re good people. I don’t know if the public knows that yet.”

Dennis Lavelle was at Oregon’s upset victory at No. 2 Ohio State in September and celebrated with both of his former Columbus High players Alex Mirabal and Mario Cristobal. (Courtesy of Dennis Lavelle)
When Cristobal left for UM, Mirabal attended Miami-Dade Community College.

As he studied to earn his bachelor’s degree in social studies education, Mirabal returned to Columbus as a volunteer assistant before Lavelle hired him to be the junior varsity coach. When Gonzalez, a University of Miami Hall of Famer, arrived at Columbus in 1994, Mirabal was his government teacher and coach. He was making $30,000 a year — with an additional coaching supplement — and enjoying life.

The only time Gonzalez said he saw Mirabal lose his cool was at halftime of a game the Explorers were getting their “asses kicked.” That’s when Mirabal swung his fist through a window in the freshmen locker room. It was a deep cut, Lavelle recalled, to the point where if Mirabal didn’t get immediate medical attention like he did, “he probably would’ve bled out right there in the lobby of the gym.”

“He punched right through this wire mesh and he messed it up badly,” Gonzalez recalled. “I used to (mess) with him all the time about that. I tell him he can never play paper, rock, scissors again because he has to throw scissors every time. Maybe it’s gotten better through time, but he wasn’t able to close his fist because his middle finger would stay open.”

At his University of Miami Hall of Fame introduction speech in 2016, Gonzalez made sure to thank all the coaches who helped him become an All-American and NFL player. Before he got to Art Kehoe, Butch Davis and Larry Coker, the first two names out of Gonzalez’s mouth were Mirabal and Cristobal.

“As a GA at Miami in 1998 and 1999, Mario took my technique to a different level,” said Gonzalez, who played four seasons in the NFL and is now president of Tire Group International. “Mario is the one who brought me Tunch’s Punches. Tunch Ilkin was an offensive lineman for the Steelers where you use this technique. Most offensive linemen are taught growing up to shoot both hands. This guy brought jiu-jitsu into the fold. That’s something Mario brought to the University of Miami that Art Kehoe wasn’t doing and we would work on hours after hours after practice — myself, Bryant McKinney. Mario taught me how to break down film and from (what) a defensive lineman’s responsibilities are. I carried that for all of my career.

“Alex, I really attribute the love of football and the passion and understanding that effort and what you put into it really goes a long way more so than talent. That’s a microcosm for my career.

“I mean, anybody that’s been around Alex Mirabal understands his intensity. This guy, he’s just such a hard worker and he is so demanding of himself that when you see people like that before they even demand anything of you, you immediately respect them. Because you see how strict they are with themselves and how they prepare and how they go to practice and how they do things. A lot of that is instilled in my way of being and the person that I was and the player that I was, and who I learned that from was Alex Mirabal.”

Building Miami​

Mirabal has always considered himself a teacher first and foremost. He said it was Lavelle who convinced him to never leave the classroom because being a teacher would help him become a better coach.

“People tell me you never were a graduate assistant. Yeah, I was,” Mirabal said. “That was 16 years as a high school coach. That was lining the fields, washing the clothes, handing out the lockers, and getting their birth certificates, all of that stuff.

“That’s how I learned how to teach, how to organize drills, and a lot of things people don’t see. I spend more time in my office figuring out, ‘OK, how am I going to make this drill efficient? How many guys am I going to have at practice? OK, I’m gonna have 14 offensive linemen in practice. OK, how many med balls do I need? How many groups do I need? That’s a teacher in the classroom. That’s why I have so much respect for high school coaches when they go to college or high school coaches that end up in the NFL. Those guys are teachers. When you’re a teacher, you’re an organizer. How am I going to get these 20 guys to efficiently do these drills in five minutes? That’s what a teacher does.”

Mirabal, who gets to the office at 4:30 a.m. in season and 6:30 a.m. in the offseason “to get uninterrupted work done,” has done a phenomenal job making players better — whether it’s inheriting talented linemen or taking walk-ons and building them into much more.

At Oregon, Sewell was expected to become a star as a top-100 ranked player out of Utah in the 2018 cycle. But Mirabal took Throckmorton, left guard Shane Lemieux and center Jake Hanson, three-star recruits, and turned them into All-Pac-12 selections. In 2020, when Oregon lost five starters, Mirabal took a group that had one career start between them and helped the Ducks win their second consecutive Pac-12 championship, with former walk-on Ryan Walk earning all-conference first-team honors.

At Marshall, Mirabal turned two walk-ons into all-conference selections — tackle Clint Van Horn and center Chris Jasperse — and had a league-leading eight first- or second-team selections from 2013 to 2017. Before his arrival, Marshall had gone 5-7, 7-6 and 5-7 in Doc Holliday’s first three seasons. The Thundering Herd went 10-4, 13-1 and 10-3 the next three seasons and ranked among the most efficient offensive lines in the country.

Mirabal, who spent the first three years of the six he spent at FIU coaching tight ends before Cristobal moved him to the offensive line, likes the talent he’s inheriting from Garin Justice at Miami.

He’s hoping left tackle Zion Nelson will stick around instead of entering the NFL Draft. Both he and Cristobal have told Nelson they think they can make him a better player by improving his hands in pass protection.

“I think Zion knows that and that’s something that he wants to focus on and get better at,” Mirabal said. “I can’t wait till we get John Campbell back out there and can’t wait to get working with Jakai Clark and DJ Scaife and Jalen Rivers back healthy. We’ve got some guys now.

“When I watch the film, I think we’ve got guys that are tough and guys that have pride. You can see it when you put them on tape.”

He also sees traits he loves in recruits — length and athleticism.

“One of my favorite things to do on film is watch an offensive lineman fall to the ground and then get up off the ground,” Mirabal said. “Does he get up off the ground athletically? Or does he get up off the ground like I say, in sections? When he gets up off the ground, do his toes, knee, hip, hand, and all that stuff have to touch every part of his body to be able to get up off the ground? Or does he just pop up?

“To me, you never sacrifice athleticism. You can’t. No matter how big or strong a guy is, if he’s not athletic, he can’t get himself into a good position and he can’t get himself out of a bad position or a bad situation. So that’s one of the things that we don’t sacrifice. And then, also, you try with length. When I say length, I’m not talking about necessarily height, I’m talking about more long arms. That’s something that we try to look for. Obviously, you are never going to get that all the time. But arm length, because arm length can help you get out of a bad body position. Arm length can get you out of bad footwork, if you take a bad step. Those are things that we kind of look for, and obviously they’ve got to be tough. They’ve got to be physical. I’d rather have to pull a guy back or pull on his leash, then teach a guy. I’m not going to teach a dog how to bite. He’s either gonna bite or he’s not gonna bite. Those are things that we look for. If you get all that stuff in a 6-6, 325 package, that’s awesome.”

The state of Florida is loaded with offensive line talent. In fact, if you take the top 150 offensive linemen per cycle ranked in the 247Sports Composite rankings from 2017 to 2022, only Texas has produced (126) more quality linemen than the Sunshine State (89) with Georgia (79) close behind.

Florida produced 37 blue-chip offensive line recruits in the last six recruiting cycles counting 2022, and seven signed with the Hurricanes. The Gators signed nine. FSU signed two, including St. Thomas Aquinas four-star 2022 prospect Julian Armella, the top-rated in-state lineman in this year’s class.

Alabama signed three of the four five-star offensive linemen the state has produced since 2017 and four of the top six linemen overall.

Ultimately, Mirabal wants to beat Alabama and keep the best of the in-state talent home. But if there aren’t good enough players locally, Cristobal will expand Miami’s reach.

“When I say expand it a little bit, it might be up to Jacksonville and Georgia and stuff like that,” Mirabal said. “The key is the closer they are to the University of Miami, the more we need to make sure that they stay home.

“I will cut off my arms and my legs before anybody considers the offensive line here to be a weakness. That ain’t going to happen. That’s not gonna happen. And I know our head football coach is not going to let that happen, either. We’re going to make sure that that is conveyed when we start being able to work with them daily. Our guys have got to go out with a chip on their shoulder and work and earn the right to be a strength on this football team.”

Joaquin should've stopped at “dominate”. It’s been downhill ever since.

Its no longer surprising that the best thing he ever said was made famous by someone else repeating it.