- 5 minutes ago
Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal joins The Joe Rose Show on 104.3 WQAM to break down the heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame. Cristobal discusses the controversial Elija Lofton fourth-quarter call in the end zone, managing the offense without star freshman Malachi Toney, Darian Mensah's second-half leadership, and shifting focus directly to a pivotal ACC matchup against Duke.
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00:05it is time to head out to the toyota of hollywood hotline shop over 2 000 toyota's on sale one
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00:15all right uh always great having a head coach of the miami hurricanes on um after games on
00:20monday morning canes uh make a great comeback there in the third quarter and have a chance
00:26to tie that game up and i spent a day yesterday at the dolphin stadium obviously with a lot of
00:32canes fans and they were all fired up the old catch or no catch hit the whole country yesterday
00:39and uh mario cristobal hurricanes head coach joins us this morning coach thanks for being with us
00:45good morning joe how are you doing man i'm doing great hey coach uh um uh before we get to
00:51the
00:51game i was thinking about you last week monday wednesday and the news comes out and about malachi
00:57tony and it wasn't so much oh no what's going to happen i just wonder for you your coaching staff
01:03he's such a great player he's such a big part of the offense can you tell me about like thursday
01:09and friday is now you got to make a few adjustments on his playing time and and get more guys
01:15ready to
01:16go what was that like for you guys especially you and your offensive coordinator well you know when
01:23it happens that late in the week um i mean your your heavier practice days are done you know you
01:28really can't grind your team on thursday and friday as you head into a saturday game so um we are
01:34very
01:34versatile in the way that we use our players they get a lot of different reps at different positions so
01:39you just didn't get the amount of reps that you would love to have right going into a
01:44to a game day but um i think our guys did the very best they could there was some really
01:49good
01:50production as it relates uh especially the second half out of it took us a little while to get going
01:54but um again it's going to be an injury that sidelined them about four weeks and got to deal
01:59with it and keep pushing forward i always wonder so when when he listen he is one of the greatest
02:03players in college football and we all know that i don't need to tell you that you get to see
02:07it every
02:07day when something like that hits your team and your job you're getting ready to play this huge
02:13game how quickly is it to get hey guys he's not going to be here but we got a lot
02:18of damn talent
02:19let's go win this thing did you feel any but any bit of a hangover after the news that he
02:24was getting
02:24this surgery no i think initially it's a shock right and something like that happens because again he's
02:31uh at the end of the day you know him and you know our quarterback are arguably the two best
02:35players
02:36in the country right so it's uh we can't ignore that right can't just pretend hey it's no big deal
02:41because it is a big deal and then at the same time you know there's a reason we preach teach
02:46and implement on the daily getting everybody on the roster ready to play at every position
02:51so that uh you know god forbid there is an issue that there are people prepared to go play winning
02:56football so we met as a team addressed it and everybody was again feel terrible for malachi first
03:03and foremost and for his teammates because they love playing with him and that guy loves nothing more
03:07fun playing football every thursday friday saturday whatever game is scheduled but uh it is it was
03:12time to move forward and our players did a good job of that coach unbelievable you're down 24-3 in
03:16that
03:16game in the third and you know yeah i don't know what you said at halftime but you guys come
03:21out after
03:21that and and get rolling and before you know it it's a one score game going into the fourth quarter
03:28um just talk about what you had to say at halftime after this and and uh and just to finally
03:34get i know a
03:34little disappointment i do want to before we get to anything else first and goal at the one
03:40and um fletch gets it once quarterback gets it twice you guys end up kicking the field goal can
03:46you talk about that a little bit yeah i had a shot to get in there you know we obviously
03:50we didn't
03:50execute at the level necessary to get in the end zone and you know the final uh after third down
03:56ball
03:56is more at the two than it is the one you know i always hit a good vantage point of
04:00that and figured
04:00we have gone 84 yards um down 10 nothing let's come out of this with points and get some momentum
04:05going yeah all right so the the topic around the country catch or no catch i know you probably had
04:12a chance to see it and and by the way now we got officials coming out and they go well
04:18you slow it
04:18down hey i'm with you and a lot of other guys looking at it coach and i'm not trying to
04:23get you in
04:24any more trouble or anything else but man it it looked like a catch i uh the picture of two
04:30hands
04:30on it i it was an nfl catch i i thought to that point then i had some people go
04:35but when he went
04:36to the ground i go he never went to the ground so so let's stop the ground he never went
04:41to the ground
04:42on it um now that you had a little bit of time to to evaluate it what are your thoughts
04:46well joe you
04:48know i've always seen my frustration uh after the game but it's it's time to move on i mean
04:53one thing i don't want to do is disrespect the game of football okay and it was a great game
04:58and uh you know what notre dame won they're a great team they got a great coach great coaching staff
05:03congratulations to them that's it that's done we're moving forward i'll focus on duke all right so
05:09let's uh all right i had to ask you that coach and and i appreciate that but you know what
05:14it is
05:14what it is let's let's move on and that's it it's done okay hey uh you talked about getting some
05:19some production and and i felt this way woody called me i felt good he goes hey you're right
05:25about lofton man i said he's good don't don't look at his numbers with this team right now
05:29he got a chance to shine with malachi out the seven catches 113 yards plus obviously the other
05:35potential one that could have been a tying touchdown um did you know going into that game that he was
05:42going
05:42to be one of the top targets and that was a matchup you liked yeah you know we um you
05:47know when we're
05:48down 24-3 it becomes a you know a heavy pass game right so and yeah it's challenging it's man
05:53coverage
05:54all the time so your guys that are good at beating man coverage have to really step up and you
05:59have
05:59to do it in the form of formations right your stacks your bunches your emotions and then flat out winning
06:04at the line of scrimmage and getting free and creating separation and eliza's really good at that
06:08uh and they can contest the catches as well so um you know really proud of him because he's fought
06:14through a lot of bumps a lot of bruises and whatnot so uh really big game by him and looking
06:19forward to
06:19building off that the uh timing it was good to see mince and barcate i thought not not surprised i
06:25was
06:25gonna be his go-to guy they've been together for a long long time and have built up great chemistry
06:29between them man he looked like a number one college football wide receiver in that game can
06:35you just talk about his kind of breakout game as the number one guy yeah he is you know and
06:40it's um
06:40it was good to see him you know play uh at that level and get the opportunities really you know
06:46because he's shown in practice all the time he's a great player great teammate and uh again some
06:51challenging um you know coverages uh in fact there were times where they started switching up and
06:56playing zone in the second half which is very very different for them and i think uh again those two
07:01guys just uh they competed and battled their butts off they uh they're relentless you know and
07:06certainly uh disappointed in not getting the w but looking forward to getting back after it again
07:10today uh you got some stops obviously and this can't happen you can't have comebacks if you don't
07:15start getting stops in the second half and and you're able to get some did you guys see anything
07:20different and getting those stops what what do you see when the canes defense plays like that
07:26yeah joe i think we just finally got our cleats in the ground you know and our eyes were clean
07:30i mean
07:31then in the first half um well i'll say on both sides the first half we were one for six
07:36on third
07:37down on offense but we were five for eight in the second half and defensively they were three for
07:42seven on third down second half defense held them two for eight the last five drives one score you
07:49know really just started playing to uh started communicating and executing at a really at a much
07:54higher level um showing stuff that we're capable of doing that we've done before and got to build off of
08:00that i thought minsa made some of the most amazing back shoulder where only his guy could get the
08:08ball and you guys did a nice job of catching it but i thought even under pressure he made some
08:14really
08:14really nice throws in that game especially in the second half yeah he was awesome he was awesome
08:20and tremendous leadership unfazed i thought the you know it was uh the bottom line is he and our
08:26players took the whole mantra of just playing one play at a time just play one play at a time
08:31and we
08:31will work our way back into this and you know what we had the ball twice right with the ability
08:36to tie
08:36the game and maybe more um by working our way back into the game so a lot of credit to
08:41him he's uh
08:42he's as good as it gets man he's awesome hey uh so so now you you get back to the
08:48you you know the
08:49deal i mean you're gonna i'm sure you'll talk to the guys but it's all acc games it's all at
08:54home
08:54and it starts with one of the hottest teams right now in uh their defense giving up five points the
09:00last two games the duke this duke team um and getting ready for them and making sure
09:07there isn't any kind of letdown although you know what you're playing for it's hard to imagine that
09:11would happen coach yeah it's playoff football you know it's conference football every team there's
09:17probably eight teams that are very much alive uh you know they're in line to compete for this
09:23conference championship and everybody knows that it's one game at a time right for everybody and
09:28they've got a great football team uh not only is their defense playing great but their offense
09:33is uh is one of the better ones in the country as well especially in points per drive and it's
09:38not
09:39just a running game quarterbacks a really good player offensive line playing really well
09:42that'll be a great opportunity great matchup i haven't asked you about cj car 29 of 40 319 yards
09:49his three touchdowns he made a couple plays back there we had great pressure and he just kind of
09:54went back and forth and was able to get rid of the ball and throw a couple of first downs
09:58to guys down
09:59the field just talk about what you've seen from a year ago from cj car yeah i thought he was
10:05a great
10:05player a year ago and i think he's a great player now um i think he made some great throws
10:09i think the
10:10offensive line gave him uh did a really good job setting a strong pocket uh and then the plays that
10:15demanded of him to extend and improvise especially on that third down where he had to scramble and
10:22come all the way from the right side back to the left side avoid the defensive end avoid the safety
10:27and uh complete that ball on third and long uh to the running back just a really great player did
10:33a
10:33really good job um so talk about getting focused back in you know everything's right now has been on
10:39the university of miami here over the last month or so is and the distractions and everybody's got
10:45opinions about everything including this last game um about getting all your guys focused back in on
10:52this duke i guess starting today this duke team you know the focus i think immediately turned in that
10:57locker room i think everyone in that locker room had uh the right kind of positive anger um understanding
11:03that again we dug ourselves out of a hole which you know again we made that hole ourselves and we
11:09had
11:09an opportunity to win the game and there's no there's no comfort in that there's no consolation prize we
11:14don't do that and that we need to continue to get better uh that we are playing some great teams
11:19here down the stretch and that all focus has to be on the first one and um again we've been
11:24on the
11:24road i think at night every single game this year it's gonna be good to get back home it's an
11:30early
11:30start this game is honest like immediately so i'll focus on starting every day fast so we can play fast
11:38on saturday coach i didn't ask you how'd your offensive line overall play against notre dame
11:43was it good enough you know when you had to throw the ball i think we do it 50 plus
11:49times
11:50um when you're down 24-3 that's about as tough of a situation as you could be at an old
11:54line okay uh
11:56and there were some really really good moments in strong pockets and there's some other ones where
11:59we got to do better but all in all they fought their butts off proud of them going to keep
12:03getting
12:04better yeah and uh and the pass rush i know that's been a topic of uh what was was the
12:10the pressure uh enough against and does it need to get better than it was i mean it's the same
12:15thing
12:15on both sides we want to get better you know there were some moments where some guys broke free i
12:19thought
12:20the interior uh defensive line played well they were disruptive they were in the backfield causing
12:25negative plays and some pressure and then there were you know times outside where we just we need more
12:30you know and got to get better so you know very similar to the offensive line you know we're
12:34we uh we have high standards and there were some positive things but we want to keep getting better
12:39you're uh i didn't realize this till yesterday and you're playing against one of the top running
12:44backs in the country right now i didn't realize he's like 1100 yards running back for duke um you
12:50obviously want to focus on i know they'd love to be able to run you guys have been really good
12:54against
12:54the run um is that the number one goal or is it still cleaning up the this the
13:00back half of of the defense here for this game well well it's all of it and we got to
13:04build on
13:05what we did in that those last five series or second half against overname but uh at running back
13:10duke is uh he's the best one we've seen by far he eliminates angles with his ability to just make
13:15people miss and then acceleration then he finishes plays with power but it starts up front their
13:21offensive line is doing a great job getting movement knocking people back and their tight ends
13:26are big physical guys that do a great job in the season d gaps coach always uh i didn't ask
13:31you this
13:31so at halftime when you go in for a game like this and and you get off to the slow
13:36start not much
13:37happening offensively and they get the the goal line stand and they stop you and force you into the
13:42just the field goal what do you say at half in a game like you guys haven't been in this
13:46situation
13:47very often here over the last couple years what do you say you say the truth and you go right
13:52at it
13:53and you make adjustments you know there's no uh i think the whole concept and um i think the
13:58narrative of halftime speeches change the course of a game it's you address things you go right at it
14:04you go right between the eyes and reality there's nothing better than reality truth and honesty and
14:09transparency that hits harder than anything and is it intense absolutely is it right to the point
14:14and is it also strategic you know as well as addressing the intangibles that go with playing
14:19high level football absolutely so uh but i think the adjustments were really really good i thought
14:24the the focus i thought also getting a feel for what they're doing um and also having a feel
14:30offensively for our guys in different positions also kicked in um and it was uh just a really you
14:37know a lot of positive things in that house coach uh thank you man thanks for coming on this
14:42morning i appreciate it and uh have a great week of practice and uh good luck against duke
14:46appreciate you joe go canes all right mario cristobal hurricanes head coach joining us this
14:52morning talk a little bit uh about the game and the loss and not touching the catch or no catch
14:59i can't how expensive is that is that is that going to be with the acc you still got to
15:06report the acc
15:12oh man i gotta tell you the fan base was jacked up yesterday holy smokes i was too but uh
15:20hey listen
15:20um anyway we've got more stuff to get to here
15:24you
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