Mario Cristobal admits he relieved himself of duties of assigning No. 1 jerseys at Miami

When he first got to Miami, head coach Mario Cristobal decided to use the No. 1 jersey as a form of motivation. The popular number would have to be earned, and not given, to the “baddest son of a gun” that Miami has on its team.

While Miami hasn’t released its final roster and the number associated with each player yet, Cristobal acknowledged that it’s a topic they’ll need to address going into the season. He just won’t be the one doing it.

“That’s a great question,” Mario Cristobal said. “I can’t be giving out jerseys, so I assign a staff member to do so. It’s the worst job in America, you know, to deal with everybody that wants the same jersey number. So, I’ve relieved myself of those duties, and I have a coach do that, and he just kind of comes by at the end and briefs me on it. I’ll set up a press conference for him so he can answer all these crazy questions.”

Last season, two Miami players were able to wear the No. 1 jersey. Quarterback Cam Ward had the number on the offensive side while linebacker Francisco Mauigoa had it on the defensive side of the ball. They were both seniors in their first season wearing the number with the program. Notably, in his first two seasons with the Hurricanes, Mario Cristobal didn’t assign the number at all.

Cristobal would love to still have the time to personally assign numbers, but the reality of being a head coach is that he’s prioritizing his time differently.

“With all the stuff that you have to do, if I have to sit there and try to figure that out, that’s like, uh, it’s like Chinese math. I mean, it’s really, really difficult. Again, everybody wants the same numbers. But the guys have done a good job,” Cristobal said. “And they know that we’re of the mindset of working and earning and making that number mean something as opposed to it being a pageant, right? Or it just looks good because it’s a number. All in all, they’ve been really good with it but we like to bust their chops a little bit.”

Miami is far from the only school to use numbers as motivation or rewards. At Temple, the Owls award single-digit numbers to their toughest players. At USC, No. 55 is special to linebackers. Similarly, No. 18 and No. 7 are both special to LSU. For Texas A&M, it’s the No. 12 jersey that becomes an honor.

At this point, with a second Transfer Portal window set to come following spring, the roster isn’t even finalized at Miami. However, once spring practice does begin, there should be a little bit more insight into the numbers that players are wearing. At the same time, that can always change as a player earns or loses the right to the number.