Mario Cristobal discusses the impact of losing Xavier Restrepo to injury

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal shared the bad news on wideout Xavier Restrepo following the loss to Texas A&M on Saturday.

Cristobal announced Restrepo will miss at least six weeks as he works his way back from a foot injury. On Monday, the ‘Canes skipper discussed the impact of losing the star wideout for potentially half of the season.

“Xavier’s obviously an excellent football player,” Cristobal said, “and on top of that, he’s an alpha, he’s a leader. He’s a guy that we certainly count on in a lot of different ways, from a culture standpoint, from a performance standpoint.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“And a guy that Tyler Van Dyke really leans on. He’s going to be gone for a little bit so, in the meantime, he’s got to be a great leader and the rest of that room, we have to work with him and get the best out of every single player to elevate our performance in the passing game.”

On Saturday, the Hurricanes went 5-for-14 on third down and 0-1 on fourth down while Van Dyke finished with a 51% completion rate.

Miami struggles versus Texas A&M without Restrepo

Restrepo was far and away Miami’s leading receiver at the time he went down with the injury. In two games, he had 172 receptions and a touchdown as he built on his connection with quarterback — and roommate — Tyler Van Dyke.

The Hurricanes’ offense clearly struggled without him against Texas A&M. Although they had more yards on the day, they failed to score a touchdown as they fell to the Aggies 17-9 at Kyle Field. It’ll be next man up for Miami when the Hurricanes take the field next week against Middle Tennessee State before ACC play gets underway.

In Saturday’s game, Van Dyke’s leading pass-catcher was TE Will Mallory with six grabs for 56 yards. However, the Canes spread the ball around, with eight players catching at least one pass.

Brashard Smith, who works in the slot, is the top candidate to take over on some plays that would have starred Restrepo. As a backup so far he had two catches for 12 yards in Game 1 and was No. 2 on the team in Week 2 with four receptions for 53 yards. Versus Texas A&M, Smith had three catches for 14 yards.