Miami’s Cristobal on Canes’ aggressiveness: ‘We need to play like a bunch of dogs’
It was near the end of the game Saturday, with Miami leading 48-33 and the Texas A&M Aggies’ offense on second-and-8 from the Texas A&M 27-yard line — two plays before safety Kam Kinchens was injured.
Aggies quarterback Conner Weigman, in the no-huddle shotgun, threw an incomplete pass intended for receiver Evan Stewart, who was tackled mercilessly by an aggressive, sprinting UM safety James Williams.
Officials called targeting, then reviewed the play and overturned the call on the clean tackle.
UM coach Mario Cristobal said after the game and then again Monday on WQAM that aggressiveness is key.
“You want aggressive plays. My sons will tell you I love them,’’ Cristobal told reporters Saturday. “It’s the way football is supposed to be played. You don’t want to get anybody hurt, please understand that. I don’t ever want to see a guy get hurt. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in anything cheap or dirty. But a physical, hard-nose, tough brand of football has got to be part of Miami DNA. So you love to see us take steps.
“Sometimes we’ve gone a little bit over the edge and we’ve just got to keep teaching. Everyone always forgets, these guys are 18, 19, 20 years old, right? So, if we’re supposed to be good teachers, let’s teach them and go get better.”
On Monday during a radio interview with Joe Rose, Cristobal praised Williams.
“That guy brought the attitude, the juice and physicality we need,’’ Cristobal said. “I know, we get a little bit edgy sometimes. But it’s a balance we’re going to get to eventually. But we need to play like dogs. We need to play like a bunch of dogs.”
The UM defense held the Aggies to 97 yards rushing and gave up 336 yards passing. But UM also had interceptions by Kinchens and Te’Cory Couch, a forced fumble by cornerback Jaden Davis and fumble recovery by Kinchens.
“There were just a lot of critical plays all over the place where guys were playing with max effort, with toughness and physicality that made a difference in that game,’’ the coach said.
And this, from Williams after the game: “Plays like that we just gotta deal with it. We gotta play hard, play to the whistle, finish on the ball. It was a great play — just a bad call, I guess.’’
Injury situation
The now-No. 22 Canes lost starting defensive linemen Akheem Mesidor and Branson Deen to what is believed to be lower-extremity injuries in the first half Saturday, and also lost freshman standout running back Mark Fletcher to an undisclosed injury.
The type of injuries were not specified by Cristobal in his postgame news conference, but the coach talked about it in general terms on WQAM.
“Speaking of the defensive line, a couple guys got banged up,’’ Rose told the coach. “Do you expect to get some of those guys back to help you down the road?”
“Yeah, I think so,’’ Cristobal replied. “They better. Heck we don’t have a ton of them and they played really, really hard. But it’s the season. That was a really, really physical game. The defense stopped it for almost 80 plays...
“But the bigs, they went, man. They went hard. The humidity down here is different. But the weather was perfect. You should be able to play 100 plays in that weather and not worry about it. We expect these guys to bounce back, get healthy and get right back in there.”
In his late afternoon news conference Monday, Cristobal was asked again about the two linemen and Fletcher.
“They’re all progressing well,’’ he said. “They’ll all be evaluated daily and assessed by our medical staff, team doctors and whatnot. We’ll know a little bit more later in the week.’’
Early Monday morning on WQAM radio, Cristobal was also asked about Kinchens after his collision on a tackle near the end of the game resulted in his being taken to the Ryder Trauma Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was released from the hospital Sunday.
“Kam is doing good,’’ Cristobal said. “Ran all the tests and all the evaluations. He’s in good shape, man. He’s fine. He’s gonna be well. He’s gonna be really good. He doesn’t have anything that’s too serious. He just has some football stuff and we’re going to be in great shape.”
Asked in the news conference to elaborate on specifics of Kinchens’ condition, Cristobal said, “We will never be specific on injuries. We think it’s important to keep confidentiality and privacy of our medical situations to our football team.”
2025 WR commit
Miami’s newest commit in the recruiting class of 2025 came Sunday night as Palm Beach Central High School four-star wide receiver Waden Charles, 6-3 and 185 pounds, announced his pledge to the Canes. Charles was at the Texas A&M game, and couldn’t help but be impressed.
“If I commit right now that means I can be on Miami’s board early,’’ Charles told Canesport, “so by the time I’m ready to get into college they already know I’m locked in with them. It’ll be good for me to secure my spot in the rotation.”
Florida State, Georgia, Auburn, Penn State, Tennessee are among the schools that undoubtedly will still be trying to lure Charles, who told On3Sports that he’s committed but keeping his recruitment open.
This and that
▪ The ACC announced Monday that the Miami at Temple game Sept. 23 in Philadelphia will be a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2.
▪ Miami announced its “players of the game” for Texas A&M. On offense: tight end Cam McCormick, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, and receivers Jacolby George and Xavier Restrepo. On defense: safety James Williams and cornerback Jaden Davis. On special teams: Return specialist Brashard Smith.
Later Monday, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced that Van Dyke is its ACC quarterback of the week, Davis is its defensive back of the week, Anez Cooper is its co-offensive lineman of the week and George is its receiver of the week.
This story was originally published September 11, 2023 at 12:53 PM.
