FSU smokes victory cigars in visitors’ locker room while dazed Miami tries to recover
Here’s what transpired in the Hard Rock Stadium visitors’ locker room after the Miami Hurricanes’ past two home losses: 1. The Duke Blue Devils dancing a conga line amid blasting music two weeks ago; 2. The Florida State Seminoles offensive linemen, their bare-chested quarterback Jordan Travis leading the pack, smoking cigars and looking extremely satisfied after their 45-3 humiliation of the Canes on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd.
The caption on the cigar-related tweet from FSU lineman Dillan Gibbons: “Just another Saturday night.’’
We can only imagine what took place in those locker rooms after the 45-31 home loss Sept. 24 to Middle Tennessee State and 27-24 loss Oct. 8 to North Carolina.
While the new-No. 25 Florida State Seminoles reveled and the rest of the nation’s college football aficionados likely shook their collective heads (if they even cared), Hurricanes fans are reeling at their team’s regression and wondering what has gone so wrong in the first of however many “rebuilding” seasons of $80-million, 10-year contracted coach Mario Cristobal.
The loss was Miami’s worst ever at home to FSU and largest margin of defeat since losing 58-0 to Clemson in 2015 under Al Golden. Golden was fired the next day.
UM dropped to 4-5 overall for the first time since 1978 and lost its fourth consecutive home game for the first time since 1973 — 49 years.
Pained players
Some of the UM players who came in to speak to the media immediately after the loss looked pained and despondent, their eyes glazed. They echoed Cristobal’s message about going “back to work.’’
Cristobal always talks about telling the truth to players. What does he say?
“He just tells us how we played,’’ linebacker Corey Flagg said softly. “He be real with us. Doesn’t sugarcoat it. He just tells us what is real. That’s that.’’
“We just got to get back to work,’’ said receiver Xavier Restrepo. “It’s as simple as that.... Pretty sure I’m not the only one on the team that hates to loss. Obviously this one means a lot, but we’ve just got to get back to work and try to get a W next week.
“...You have to have people around you that really care and really believe in the process. Our whole team believes in Coach Cristobal and what he’s doing. All he keeps preaching to us is just keep coming back to work. Work, work, work.’’
Cristobal, clearly upset, apologized to the capacity crowd of 66,200 that for the most part was extremely supportive throughout the rout before it began dispersing around halftime.
Cristobal apology
“Place was electric to start off,’’ the coach said. “I have to apologize to them because that’s what we want. It’s what we’re building to be and building to do. Trust me, no one feels this more than I do. I hate it for our people. I hate it for our fans. I hate it for our players.
“We’re in a building process. We’re laying a foundation and have to go to work. It ain’t fun. Days like this are really painful. There ain’t no excuse, ain’t no side-stepping or sugarcoating. That’s why I came here. We gotta go to work. We gotta do lots of it.”
Hundreds of social media posts by suffering UM fans and gleeful Noles fans told the story into the wee hours of Sunday.
“Mario Cristobal should be the next FEMA director,’’ an FSU fan tweeted. “Man single-handedly evacuated 65,000 ppl in less than 3 hours.’’
“Hey! Canes scored 3 more today than they did that day!’’ a UM fan tweeted, regarding that 58-0 loss to Clemson.
And this, regarding former coach Manny Diaz, who won his last five of six games to go 7-5 last season before getting fired just hours before Cristobal was announced as being hired: “Just throwing this out there: Manny Diaz vs FSU W 27-10 W 52-10 L 31-28. Mario Cristobal vs FSU L 45-3.”
It’s almost hard to imagine UM rebounding to win the next two of three games (Georgia Tech, at Clemson and Pittsburgh) to qualify for a bowl and avoid not qualifying for the first time since 2007.
Woeful offense
The scoring offense, which now ranks 92nd of 131 FBS teams, hasn’t scored a touchdown in nearly 10 quarters. Its 188 total yards (including an almost incomprehensible 62 yards passing combined from three quarterbacks) were the fewest since the 169 on Dec. 27, 2018 against Wisconsin in a 35-3 loss in the Pinstripe Bowl — Mark Richt’s final game as head coach.
Starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who didn’t play the previous game at Virginia to rehabilitate his injured throwing shoulder, started the game and re-injured the shoulder. Cristobal said he didn’t know the severity. Backup redshirt freshman Jake Garcia came in and was 1-of-2 for 1 yard, with an interception on his first pass. True freshman Jacurri Brown had the most playing time of his young career, going 5-of-9 for 37 yards, with an interception.
The UM defense allowed multiple big plays in giving up 454 total yards.
Florida State had three passing plays of 25, 56 and 65 yards and several long runs, including a 42-yarder. According to cfbstats.com, UM is tied for 112th in the nation for allowing 13 plays of 40 yards or more — last in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Big plays were the story,’’ Cristobal said. “I think they had five plays for over 240 or 250 yards. We got work to do. We gotta build. I knew it, but we gotta build. Stuff like this, it just ain’t it.”
Fans are livid about the offense and upset about the hire of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, who won the Broyles Award last season with Michigan as college football’s top assistant coach, but appears to be getting nowhere with the Hurricanes.
“We gotta find ways,’’ Cristobal said of the offensive struggles. “We have to tweak stuff. We gotta find ways to produce. Obviously we came in here with a plan. I think Coach Gattis runs a great offense. It ran really well at Michigan and was very successful in the things he was involved with at Alabama.
“We’re not there yet, from a development standpoint. So we have to find ways to generate yards, first downs and points. We’re trying to uncover every stone to try to do that, and we haven’t.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 2:31 PM.
