Dan Radakovich explains his confidence in Mario Cristobal, Miami entering 2024 season
Mario Cristobal has gotten off to a bit of a slow start as the head coach at Miami. The former Hurricanes offensive lineman is 12-13 in his first two seasons, after previously having a successful stint at Oregon.
Miami Athletics Director Dan Radakovich believes 2024 will be the year Cristobal turns things around. Radakovich recently spoke with Kelly Gramlich and Eric Mac Lain about why he’s confident in Mario Cristobal and Miami entering the 2024 season.
“The fundamentals of the people that we have in the positions right now of real influence, I think, are really good,” Radakovich said of Miami football. “Our offensive line, we have three of the five guys coming back and another one who played a lot. So for all intents and purposes, four of the five [are back], and the center is a two-year starter from a Big Ten school. OK, so we feel really good there.
“Defensive line, a number of really positive folks coming in. The quarterback, the linebacker, the safety. You know that thing about being strong up the middle, I think there’s some real truth to that.”
The biggest addition for Miami this offseason was quarterback Cam Ward.
The dual-threat quarterback accounted for nearly 3,900 total yards and 33 touchdowns last season at Washington State, before transferring to Miami. He considered heading to the NFL Draft but instead chose to transfer to play for the Hurricanes. Radakovich has been impressed by Ward so far.
Between Ward, other transfers and a talented recruiting class, Radakovich has high expectations for 2024.
“With Cam Ward, who came in from Day 1 as really a great leader, someone who everybody has universally rallied around. And then of course we’ve got a couple of other pieces in the transfer portal Part 2, as well. But we do feel really good about it,” Radakovich said.
“Then when you watch spring practice, you were really able to see some of the differences. We had a freshman from Las Vegas, [Elija] Lofton, tight end, running back. He’s a special player. And you can do a number of different things. So there’s a lot of good, young men on this team, and I think that Mario has really been able to change the culture. And I think we will see how that’s going to work and the fruits of the labor moving forward.”
Dan Radakovich admits that things haven’t gone as planned for Miami under Mario Cristobal thus far, but as he pointed out, it takes some time to build a program back up.
“You have to go back to Mario’s first year, where you have an alum coming in and Mario was very successful at Oregon. And everybody thought that you just sprinkle pixie dust on the players and all of a sudden they’re going to perform great,” Radakovich said. “Well, it wasn’t. And they weren’t the right type of players and system for what Mario and his staff would like to do. So it took a little time.”