Miami making College Football Playoff ‘another significant step’ under Cristobal
Mario Cristobal knew if the Miami Hurricanes were going to make the College Football Playoff, they would be placed in one of two slots.
The top eight seeds of the 12-seed field were essentially set, save for possibly the order of Ole Miss and Texas A&M at Nos. 6 and 7.
The bottom two seeds were locked up as well, both going to conference champions ranked lower than Miami (the five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic berths into the field). Those spots eventually went to American Conference champion Tulane and Sun Belt champion James Madison.
That left spots Nos. 9 and 10, two positions for three teams in Miami, Alabama and Notre Dame.
Cristobal remained adamant in his confidence that Miami would get into the field, but second thoughts might have raced in his head after Alabama was named the No. 9 seed.
“No one can’t sit here and lie and say you weren’t nervous,” Cristobal said, “because when it’s not completely in your hands, those feelings kind of come in a little bit. They creep in.”
And then came the reveal.
No. 10 seed: Miami Hurricanes.
“When that thing popped on the screen, it was like an explosion of gratitude,” Cristobal said late Sunday afternoon, a few hours after the selection show. “I don’t know if that makes sense. It just hits you, man. Another monster step for us. Another significant step for us.”
The Hurricanes did not have a team meeting or watch party on Sunday as they awaited their fate. Cristobal gave them the day off to keep with their usual weekly routine.
But through phone calls, text messages and FaceTimes, the sentiment was nearly unanimous as the Hurricanes get ready to contend for their first national championship since 2001. That hopeful run starts on Dec. 20 at the No. 7 seed Texas A&M Aggies (noon, ABC) and, if they make it through the first three rounds, would end on their home field Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Their message was, ‘Hey, let’s get to work,’” Cristobal said. “Obviously extremely happy, extremely grateful for the opportunity, but very, very driven to get to the task at hand.”
It’s an opportunity the Hurricanes have been striving for since Cristobal was introduced as head coach on Dec. 7, 2021.
Exactly four years later, Miami is officially a playoff team again.
Cristobal called the moment “validation of everything that we preached, everything that we set out to do.”
But the coach also stressed that this moment is simply just “the beginning of what we set out to do.”
“We’re not here just to participate,” Cristobal said. “We want to make sure that the best version of the University Miami is out there.”
It has been a journey to get Miami to the point where it can have the best version of itself on the field. Cristobal’s Hurricanes went through their lumps his first two seasons as he overhauled the roster through top recruiting classes and transfer portal additions. They went 5-7 his first year (3-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), including an embarrassing 45-31 loss to Middle Tennessee State and losing four ACC games by at least 20 points.
There was progress in 2023, with Miami starting 4-0 before losing to Georgia Tech when the Hurricanes opted not to take knee and run down the clock. That started a run of Miami going 3-5 in league play, dropping three of their final four league games after a 2-2 start in ACC action and then losing to Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl.
In 2024, Miami had the top offense in the country, led by transfer quarterback and eventual No. 1 overall draft pick Cam Ward. But a shaky defense was UM’s downfall late, with the Hurricanes losing two of their final three regular-season games to miss out on both the ACC Championship Game and the CFP field. A loss to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl followed to cap a 10-3 season.
And this year, Miami started strong with a 5-0 record before hitting a rough patch in dropping games to Louisville at home and SMU on the road in a span of three weeks. The Hurricanes rebounded with four strong games — beating Syracuse, NC State, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh by a combined score of 151-41 — to cap the season and secure a playoff bid.
“It’s been amazing to see where this program has [come] to,” senior linebacker Wesley Bissainthe, a Miami Central alumnus who was a freshman during Cristobal’s first year as head coach, said after the Pittsburgh game. “It’s been amazing, man. And that goes to show all the work we put in those four years. It wasn’t easy, but coach Cristobal has done an amazing job with us and his coaching staff. … Just got to keep it going.”
That has always been the plan: Keep it going. It’s gotten Miami to this point, where it has a chance to show it belongs among the nation’s best.
“The sky’s the limit for us,” Cristobal said.
Cristobal has taken a methodical approach to get to this point. The Hurricanes aren’t completely where they want to be yet.
But making the College Football Playoff is the latest step toward getting Miami that much closer to where it wants to be.
“It’s real,” Cristobal said. “To see the Miami logo, the U, beside the CFP logo, that hit strong. We had about three minutes of some high-fives. Just energy and juice and right to film work getting ready for the opponent. It’s awesome, man. It’s awesome.”
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