‘We lost our way’ – Miami HC Mario Cristobal finally makes an admission everyone already knew heading into clash with Notre Dame
Miami HC Mario Cristobal just stated the obvious
If you watched the Miami Hurricanes under head coach Mario Cristobal last season, you were probably extremely entertained. Led by quarterback Cam Ward, the offense managed to lead all of college football in scoring with a 43.9-point per game average. There were fireworks in nearly every contest.
The problem was, the offense had to have those types of performances to win football games. The defense, in comparison, managed to surrender 25.3 points per game, which ranked 69th in the country. If you take out games against Florida A&M, Ball State, and South Florida, those numbers are considerably worse.
Coach Cristobal knew that changes were needed for the defense, just like everyone knew. That included bringing in new talent, but also a new defensive coordinator. Heading into the game against Notre Dame, Cristobal spoke about those changes with former Miami great Michael Irvin.
Cristobal likes the direction the defense is going.
“A lot of turnover. A lot of turnover both in the coaching department and the player department as well. We lost our way last year. We did. We started off really hot and down the stretch we had a tough time getting stops and it made us play out of character and we turned the ball over. Ultimately it hurt us.
“It cost us in the end. So for us, the most important thing is running a system that really fits our personnel and Cory Hetherman had a top five defense at Minnesota. He worked with Greg Shiano before that, James Madison before that, and what he runs really caters to what we have personnel-wise. We went and bolstered the secondary with a bunch of new additions both at the high school and the portal level that have really changed our ability to cover down. We expect to be multiple.
“We expect to be able to play fast and free. I know he’s only been here for seven, eight months as a new coordinator, but man, he does remind you of the old school coordinators we’ve had here. He’s extremely smart, intense, and laser focused. Laser focused, great teacher, and he gets after it.”
“We lost our way last season.” Hearing that might be hard for some fans, but Coach Cristobal realizing it is important for growth. He attacked a clear weakness of his program, and completely overhauled it.
Heading into the contest against the Fighting Irish, many Miami fans are anxious to see that remade defense. Will it be good enough to hand the Fighting Irish squad a loss in Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night? That is the major question.
Defenses are defined a lot of the time by communication, both from the coach and within the group of players. There’s a good chance that defense is better in 2025, but how quickly it shows it will be interesting. This is a brand new unit, with talent, but a lot of remaining questions.
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