Miami’s Cristobal: UM gave effort but ‘some poor technique,’ tells fans ‘great days ahead’
University of Miami football coach Mario Cristobal spoke to Joe Rose and Zach Krantz on WQAM radio early Monday morning and spoke about his players and the state of the program, which fell to Duke 45-21 on Saturday after committing eight turnovers.
Cristobal avoided giving details on the injury of starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who was sacked and landed on his throwing shoulder with 8:58 left, then was replaced by redshirt freshman backup Jake Garcia. It appeared Van Dyke was hurt pretty badly, as he held his bent arm against his torso and walked with medical personnel into the locker room.
“There is nothing new to update right now but we’ll certainly keep you posted,’’ Cristobal told Krantz.
Garcia finished the game, going 13-of-21 for 18 yards and two touchdowns, with three interceptions and two fumble. Van Dyke was 11-of-16 for 81 yards and a touchdown before he got injured.
The Canes (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) are traveling to Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend to face the Virginia Cavaliers (3-4, 1-3) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday
When Rose told Cristobal that Garcia “looks like he’s your quarterback going forward now,’’ here was Cristobal’s response:
“He had some good moments. He had some other ones he’d like to take back. The guy’s a competitor. He’s gonna get rights after it.. He knows the mistakes he made. He knows there are things he’d like to have back. Going forward we know we’re going to be in tight games, we have to be really good with our responses, with our executions in tight situations. We can’t allow ourselves to get frazzled as a football team, as an organization. We’ve got to enjoy those moments...”
In regard to the offensive line injuries, which include the newest injury to backup center Jonathan Denis, who couldn’t touch his left leg to the ground after being led off the field at 5:07 of the second quarter, Cristobal was asked if he expected players back?
“I don’t think right now,’’ the coach answered. “You gotta go right at it and let’s roll.’’
The UM offensive line is also missing its former starting right guard Justice Oluwaseun and tackle Zion Nelson.
Here are many of the other topics WQAM asked Cristobal about, with his responses after watching film from the game:
Did you see great effort from everyone?
“What I saw was after that 20-play drive, it took the wind out of our team — it certainly did,’’ Cristobal said of the 18-play, 79-yard drive in the third quarter and resulted in a 24-21 Duke lead. “Did our guys play with effort watching the film? I think we did. Did we miss some blocks, did we miss some tackles, did we have some poor technique? Yeah, that certainly led to us not winning the football game. But watching the film, I do not see anything but guys trying to do it.”
Are turnovers alarming? Was the sloppiness mostly mental mistakes or physically are their guys beating you?
“You go to everything. You go to the truth. You go to the tape.
“Where are you coughing up the ball? Where are you not hitting the short-yardage play where you’re supposed to hit it? Where are you not blocking a guy? Where is there a talent deficiency where we’re getting beat on talent? So you go right to the reality of it. You go right back to work, man. You face it, you don’t side step it, you just go right at it and pour every ounce you have into the players and do everything you can to help them get better.”
How many changes can you make? Are there more changes to be made other than guys’ injuries? Or is it, ‘We gotta coach these guys up, this is what we have’?
“You gotta pour every ounce into the players. Guys are trying hard. Some areas of our team are more talented than others. Some are more talent-deficient than others. But in terms of technique and fundamentals, the mentality that goes into it, more than anything it’s building the resiliency of our football team, the competitive response when things get tight and things get hot, and the game is back-and-forth thing, that’s when your competitive response has got to be at its best. So, everything is a work in progress. We got it. We knew it coming in. That’s part of it and we’re attacking that at 100 mph.’’
Is this thing where you thought it would be when you looked at the level of talent and everything around winning games?
“You never know exactly where it’s going to land. The truth is the truth. We left really, really good jobs that we had built into being great jobs to come here and make sure we built Miami to what it needs to be, fully knowing it is a very large task due to some of the inadequacies of past years.
“We get it. We’re all about it. We knew it would come with lumps. We’re OK with that. We’re all about the work. The key is you need tough minded people to coach it, to put it together, to deal with the lumps. Because that’s what it takes. That’s what it has always taken to rebuild places, especially places that have been at the top of the mountain. We’re here for all of it. We get it. We totally understand reality and we live in the world of reality. We’re here for all of it, and that’s what we’re doing.
“And day by day we just keep going at it and working at it and making sure we’re taking whatever steps necessary to keep doing it the right way, because we will be a championship football program. You’ve just gotta have the guts, gotta have the intestinal fortitude to get after it and not flinch.”
After these games, do you worry about team losing confidence and not knowing how to win games?
“No, I don’t worry about the team losing confidence. Certain individuals you have to pick up more than others. You have to asses everybody individually and you have to go right to the facts and make sure you’re doing everything possible to help guys get better...”
Your message to players and fans?
“Just the reality. There’s no sidestepping it — technical and mental mistakes that we have made sometimes in crunch time. Are guys working hard? Yeah, they’re working at it or whatnot. .. the message has been consistent since day One. We left everything that we had been doing in all our careers to come to Miami because we love Miami and we know what Miami needs to be and should be...
“And also knowing there was a very large task at hand and it comes with the lumps. So, we’re here for the lumps, we’re here for whatever it takes, and we’re working at it. And you know what? Great days are ahead. We’ve got to work through some of the stuff and the issues we’re currently going through to get there.’’
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 8:03 AM.
