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Miami Gardens, FL- A collected Mario Cristobal approached the post-game press conference with a businesslike approach that was evident during the expanse of game day at the University of Miami and Hard Rock Stadium during his first game under his tenure. What’s different with Coach Cristobal at the helm of the Miami Hurricanes football program on game days? A better question to ask is what’s not? First, there’s a recruit-oriented approach that hasn’t been seen since the games left the Orange Bowl and made their way north to the new home of the Miami Dolphins.
The pre-game recruiting section at Hard Rock Stadium looks a little different in 2022. pic.twitter.com/SsBn5VF19O
— Gaby Urrutia (@GabyUrrutia247) September 3, 2022
From a massive and opulent recruiting tent to post game golf card rides to said tent for an experience between recruits and coaches (following a big win over Bethune Cookman tonight to the tune of 70-13). The stamp and imprint on the program are evident.
The amount of game day recruiting staff and focus on recruiting is twofold from previous staffs. After arriving at the stadium, coach Cristobal himself was seen walking around the plush recruiting tent with the majority of the on-field coaching staff for Miami and mingling with recruits and their families. This was on game day.
In the past, a trip to the center of the field during warmups was the most you saw. What’s the significance? Miami is unique in that some of the natural advantages for a school with an on-campus stadium are absent. You don’t have lounges for recruits or their families where you can host and schmooze and talk about how you’re going to blow out an opponent and how you want their son to be a part of something like the storied history of the University of Miami.
Miami target Rueben Bain here for Miami vs. Bethune pic.twitter.com/ScLvVslh4l
— Marcus Benjamin (@BenjaminRivals) September 3, 2022
So when you’re Mario Cristobal operating in your dream job, you create what you don’t have. You build it and you say, this is the money I need to do so.
What’s the difference? “Resources”, a coach on the recruiting staff quipped to me after the game. The amount of money Miami spends now is a direct reflection of a coach who understands what a school is, what it must be and what it takes to become what it must be. Even without certain built-in advantages.
When asked during the presser if he was glad his first game as a Hurricane head coach was over, allowing him now to focus on the team, he deflected the notion politely. “I’m sheltered,” he said. Indicating that his life doesn’t include much more than trips to the office, Greentree and home.
It shows.
The Hurricanes product on the field is improved and the depth is evident. You can see a more discipline approach to football overall and the offense has developed a strong running game, an indication that the offensive line is improved. Something this team desperately needed.
But overall, Miami is trying to become Miami again. But this time, in the 2020s and catching up for what they didn’t do right in the 2010s. Significant because it’s the only decade since the 1980s that this program doesn’t have a championship in.
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