Mario Cristobal explains how he is elevating team's overall intensity at Miami

A new era is underway at Miami, and the Hurricanes are moving forward with new head coach Mario Cristobal. Cristobal knows a thing or two about what it takes to win at Miami, as he was part of the 1989 and 1991 national championship teams as a player.

Now, Cristobal is back at Miami and he is looking to lead the program back into the upper echelon of college football. To do so, he knows that his team needs to play with a certain intensity that never lets up. And that’s exactly what he’s trying to instill into his roster.

“Again, it’s a new culture, it’s a new system and the pace of it is really high,” Cristobal said. “The level of intensity, it just doesn’t really throttle down. We go. Now we have our days where we scale it down of course, because you got to make sure you take care of the body. You ramp up when you have to, you scale it down when you have to. But we’re adapting and we’re getting there, but it’s obvious we’re not there yet.”

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Cristobal on Miami: A lot of progress, but a lot of work left

Miami had a bit of an up and down season in 2021, though the Hurricanes ended on a strong note with five wins over the final six weeks. After going 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the ACC, Miami opted to move on from Manny Diaz and added Cristobal from Oregon.

With expectations rising as Cristobal begins his tenure as Miami’s leader, he knows that there is still plenty of work left to do to ultimately get where wants to be.

“Most of the work has to take place between the ears because we have seen a willingness to go our there to physically compete, to give pretty good effort,” said Cristobal. “Not the level of championship level effort we want to, but we’re getting better there. The details that come with this, there are no little things.

“Making sure you understand what signal is coming in, what you got to do when that signal comes in, how you got to get lined up as it relates to the play. Those things, they’re all really, really, really important and we’re not there yet. It’s hit or miss sometimes. Some other guys have been on point. So a lot of progress, but a lot of work to do.”