Mario Cristobal details importance of competition in fall camp

Through his first training camp back at Miami, Mario Cristobal made one thing clear. Competition was a big part of his plan as he starts building the program back up.

He sees it as a way to get the most out of his players, especially as he tries to create depth at multiple key positions. In fact, Cristobal said he’s already seeing good things out of his group.

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“There’s no other way to describe it. If you’re not at your best, you’re at risk of losing some reps,” Cristobal told reporters. “[At] the same time, if you bring your best, you have the ability to come in waves at an opponent. Competition is never presented as something with fear. That should never be the case. Competition should always be a welcome thing in your program. Everyone has a goal to play in the NFL one day. Well, guess what? Competition there is kind of real. That meal you have for free here on scholarship? If it doesn’t go your way in the NFL, it’s like a little note that says, ‘Hey, come bring your playbook and stuff.’ So they’ve got to get used to that level of competition.

“We’ve seen tremendous battles going on. … Just a lot of really, really good competition. That’s what you want at every position. If we want to be really good, we’ve got to get there from a recruiting, talent acquisition standpoint, development standpoint and we’ll be on our way.”

Mario Cristobal: Competition has created ‘urgency’ at Miami

Cristobal also said camp has gone well in the lead-up to the Hurricanes’ season opener against Bethune-Cookman on Sept. 3. He cited that competition as a reason why since players have to fight for their positions.

“It’s been a very wide open camp,” Cristobal said. “I think we did a really good job of allowing competition to take care of things. Competition and having, I would say, a little bit deeper talent pool at certain positions … it’s created urgency.

“It’s created that feeling where, ‘I’d better be at my best every single day,’ and it’s helped certain position groups and others aren’t as deep. Certainly, we need to develop that. We need to acquire more talent at certain positions.”