Memo to Pitbull: There’s another ‘Mr. 305’ in Miami. He’s the Hurricanes quarterbacks coach
Four of Mario Cristobal’s 10 assistant football coaches grew up in South Florida.
Only one is known as “Mr. 305.’’
Nope, not Pitbull.
“Yeah, it’s funny they call me that,’’ Miami Hurricanes quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Frank Ponce said Tuesday, when native South Floridians Alex Mirabal (offensive line), Kevin Smith (running backs) and Stephen Field (tight ends) spoke to the media for the first time since being hired, or in Field’s case, retained. “Even when I was at other schools I was in Miami recruiting. That’s why they call me Mr. 305.
“Now they just call me by my name.”
As long as they call him successful.
Last season, Ponce, 50, coached against Miami as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the Appalachian State Mountaineers, who got edged by the Hurricanes 25-23 in early September.
Among his South Florida resume notables, Ponce, born in Nicaragua, was the offensive coordinator at La Progresiva Presbyterian School in 1992, the QB/wideouts coach at Coral Gables High from 1993-96, QB coach at Miami Northwestern in 1998, OC/QB coach at Miami Central from 1999-2000, head coach at Miami Coral Reef 02-03, head coach/OC at Miami Senior High 04-06 and receivers coach under then-FIU head coach Cristobal from 2007-12.
Ponce helped guide App State to three consecutive Sun Belt Championships during his first stint with the Mountaineers from 2013-18. He also was the passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Louisville in 2019-20, when UM defeated the Cardinals twice.
Ponce led a Mountaineers offense that ran a shotgun spread and ranked 30th nationally of 130 FBS teams, with 441.3 yards per game. App State ranked 22nd in scoring (34.5 points) and 54th in passing (249.1 yards). His rushing game there was strong as well, ranking 33rd nationally, with 192.2 yards a game.
Miami and Boone, North Carolina are different in almost every conceivable way. Ponce, who played at Miami Senior High, grabbed the opportunity to return home from a scenic, serene campus tucked amid the Blue Ridge Mountains and lush, green woods. As head coach Cristobal has repeatedly said, “Home is home.’’
He acknowledged the theme when told by a reporter that typically coordinators wouldn’t accept a job with lesser, more narrow responsibilities. Why was it appealing?
Why Miami?
“The main thing is obviously you’re home,’’ Ponce said. “And obviously our head football coach and just being part of this organization, the way he runs things and does things, you want to grow as a coach. There’s a plan. There are goals for each one of us.
“I want to be able to develop myself as a coach in the future and get myself better to be in a better situation. With Coach Cristobal and the rest of the staff, you have an opportunity to do that.”
Mirabal gushed repeatedly Tuesday about how Ponce excels as a teacher — even if the two were intense rivals in high school. Ponce was a star quarterback at Miami Senior High. Mirabal was an offensive lineman at Columbus.
“You have a history with Frank Ponce,’’ Mirabal was told.
“Guilty,” Mirabal replied.
“Both of us, for years, we were high-school rivals, right? He played at Miami High. I played at Columbus with Coach Cristobal. We played against Frank. ...I was always at a rival school to him, whether he was at Central, whether he was at Northwestern, whether he was at Miami High, whether he was at Coral Reef. So we had an adversarial relationship. And then Coach hires me at FIU, Coach hires him at FIU and they put us next to each other in offices and kind of [said], ‘Hey, figure it out.’
“So, hey, we both kind of figured it out together. And we became brothers through that. So he’s one of the brothers in my life that I’ve chosen. And I’m one of the brothers in his life that he’s chosen. So he’s very special to me. We learned the ropes of college coaching together.
“He’s the ultimate teacher. ...We’re kindred spirits.”
Tyler, Jake, Jacurri
Ponce said he previously recruited all three of UM’s top quarterbacks: starter Tyler Van Dyke, backup Jake Garcia and early enrollee freshman Jacurri Brown.
“They’re extremely bright kids,’’ Ponce said. “You can tell in their drive. They want to get better every single day. They listen, they’re coachable and it’s a pleasure to coach them.
“Tyler is a young man I got to spend a little time with before. Very intellectual young man, always asks questions...and always wants to know why.
“He picked it up tremendously fast.
“Jake Garcia is the same way. He’s a very smart kid, very schooled, very well coached...’’
Brown, he said, has taken a bit of time to get used to the speed of college ball. Tuesday was only the fourth spring practice session on Greentree Field.
“He’s starting to catch on and he’s improving,’’ Ponce said. “Today, he had a great day. We’re very happy with his progress and extremely satisfied with what we saw today.’’
Not calling plays
Last year Ponce finally got to call plays in college. Now, he’s back to concentrating on the quarterbacks and passing game, but has “to be dialed into the offense” and works closely with offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.
“I’m an extension of him with the quarterbacks,’’ he said. “It gets you to be really detailed with your position and help those guys develop fundamentally a lot more. As a coordinator you’ve got more responsibilities at times and that kind of takes a little bit away from you for the most part.”
More, from Tuesday:
▪ Hurricanes starting tight end Will Mallory left practice and was later seen with his left arm/shoulder in a sling.
▪ Running back Cody Brown was not at practice but is expected back later this week.
▪ Cornerback Tyrique Stevenson (shoulder surgery) was back on the sideline in a red, no-contact jersey for the first time during media viewing since spring sessions began.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 3:47 PM.
