Mario Cristobal addresses what Florida State rivalry means to non-local players

It’s rivalry week for the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles. For native Floridians, like Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, it’s a massive rivalry that often pits players who have known each other for their whole lives.

Of course, not every player in the game is from the state of Florida, and Cristobal recently shared what the rivalry means to those non-local players.

“You’d be surprised how many guys you’d think wouldn’t be familiar with but that are familiar with it,” Mario Cristobal said. “I think it’s important that we always educate our players on the history of the University of Miami, and such an insanely awesome rivalry like we’ve always had with Florida State, and at the same time making sure that the main thing stays the main thing so that we don’t spill over into emotional play. Stuff that doesn’t contribute to winning.”

Miami and Florida State first met in 1951. Since then, the two teams have met 68 times and the Hurricanes currently hold a slim lead in the overall series record at 35-33, though the Seminoles have won three times in a row.

“But no, the response and the excitement is what you could imagine,” Cristobal said. “I don’t think the rivalry and the juice and energy behind it will ever change. It’s Florida State-Miami, and certainly looking forward to a great challenge and a great opportunity.”

In this year’s matchup, some of the most important players come from outside of the state of Florida, in no small part due to the Transfer Portal. That, notably, includes Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who is a Texas native and most recently played for Washington State.

Mario Cristobal not letting players look back at past games

Miami is unbeaten to this point in the season, but Mario Cristobal doesn’t want to have his players looking back on those past games at this point.

I don’t think anybody’s looking back. We don’t let them, we don’t want them to, because it means absolutely nothing and everybody’s on the same plane. If you put up conference standings, everybody’s either 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 1-1, 2-1, and everybody’s alive and everybody will be mathematically alive for about till Week 10-11. And then there’ll be another handful alive all the way at the end and the more you win, the more you control your destiny,” Cristobal said.

“So it’s no surprise, and no one should be surprised, that really most games are coming out to the last possession, or the final quarter, some the final play. And you’re also noticing that maybe a lot of games are sometimes lost more than won because of a turnover, a mistake, an error of some sort.”

Miami and Florida State will kickoff at 7:00 p.m. EST on Saturday.