‘We’ll be there’: Mario Cristobal vows to get Miami to Clemson’s level after latest loss
A little more than seven years ago, the Clemson Tigers handed the Miami Hurricanes one of their worst losses ever, blowing them out by 58 points for their first win against Miami in six years. The Hurricanes fired Al Golden the next day.
On Saturday, Miami and Clemson faced each other for the third time since, and the gulf between the two programs is still massive. In 2017, the Tigers beat the Hurricanes by 35 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. In 2019, Clemson won by 25. This weekend, the Tigers won 40-10 to keep their slim College Football Playoff hopes alive and put Miami in serious danger of missing out on a bowl game for the first time since 2007.
Although it wasn’t technically the closest of this series, it might have actually been closer than the final score indicated with the Hurricanes getting within 16 in the fourth quarter, but it was still ultimately another blowout loss to the standard bearer in the ACC.
“They’ve been where we’ve been before. They’ve built it up,” Cristobal said. “I get it.”
The outcome of this one was no surprise, even though the then-No. 9 Tigers did cover the 19-point spread in South Carolina.
Clemson has been on a different tier than Miami (5-6, 4-5) for a decade now and Cristobal, in his first season back in Coral Gables, wasn’t going to close the gap in one year. The Hurricanes were also on their third different starting quarterback this year, with star quarterback Tyler Van Dyke sidelined for the third time in four weeks by a shoulder injury, and playing without three of their projected starting offensive linemen from the preseason, including star tackle Zion Nelson. Miami even started five freshmen, with Jacurri Brown at quarterback, Jaleel Skinner at tight end, Wesley Bissainthe at linebacker, and Anez Cooper and Laurance Seymore — a redshirt freshman — on the offensive line.
At the same time, the Hurricanes’ 98 total yards were their third fewest in a game in program history and they trailed by 23 in the third quarterback before a series of takeaways finally let them get in the end zone. It was, in some ways, as garish a performance as Miami’s losses to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Duke Blue Devils and Florida State Seminoles.
Yet, the Hurricanes did something differently than their other lopsided losses.
“Tonight didn’t go the way we wanted, but I will say I thought guys were fighting to the very end,” tight end Will Mallory said Saturday. “That’s extremely promising. That’s a credit to the culture coach is building.”
Cristobal, with a 10-year deal, is going to get a long leash to try to turn around his alma mater, and it means this game and this year — as long as he learns from it — will be far less important than what’s to come.
Next month, a rash of Hurricanes will flock for the transfer portal — some already have — and Cristobal will get another chance to reshape the roster in his image. Miami’s incoming recruiting class is also poised to be the best since at least the Class of 2018 and the dozen-plus blue-chip prospects will add to the youth movement Cristobal has embraced in recent weeks.
There’s a core to work with, even if it’s not quite as big as Cristobal might like yet. Thirteen of the Hurricanes’ offensive and defensive starters at Memorial Stadium were underclassmen, and nine of them are not eligible for the 2023 NFL Draft. Brown, Skinner Seymore, Cooper, Bissainthe, defensive linemen Darrell Jackson Jr. and Leonard Taylor III, safeties James Williams and Kamren Kinchens, and wide receiver Colbie Young — who is technically eligible for the 2023 Draft, but unlikely to enter it — will almost certainly all be back to form a tantalizing foundation for next season, which will then get reinforced by something like half a dozen top-100 prospects in the Class of 2023, plus any transfer pick-ups.
“We’ll be there,” Cristobal said, looking up at the Tigers in the standings and as a benchmark.
For the moment, Miami is still a long way away. The Hurricanes need an upset Saturday against the Pittsburgh Panthers in Miami Gardens just to qualify for a bowl, and even then it could be a lower-tier game like the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa or Birmingham Bowl in Alabama.
After a desperate attempt at an upset and stunning fourth quarter comeback fizzled out in Clemson, the Hurricanes will be measured on what they do this week to get prepared one last time and try to salvage something from their season next weekend at Hard Rock Stadium.
It’s one last chance in 2022 to get something tangible out of Year 1 in Cristobal’s culture shift.
“Ever since he’s gotten here, the culture has been changing constantly,” cornerback DJ Ivey said Saturday. “As he keeps pushing us, I feel like the culture will change even more.”
Susan Miller Degnan contributed reporting.
This story was originally published November 20, 2022 at 11:24 AM.
