Mario Cristobal gives takeaways of Virginia

In Week 8, the Miami Hurricanes made waves in the college football world with their come-from-behind 28-20 victory over the ACC’s reigning conference champs, the Clemson Tigers. In week 9, head coach Mario Cristobal and his Hurricanes will host the ACC program with arguably the biggest surprise upset victory in week 8, Virginia.

The Cavaliers stunned many on Saturday, upsetting the previously No. 10 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels 31-27. As Cristobal prepares Miami to take on Virginia, the Hurricanes headman shared some of his takeaways of how his upcoming opponent fared thus far this season.

“Well, watching them up front, number one, they bring a lot of pressure,” said Cristobal. “I mean, they’re anywhere from 36-40 percent pressure. They’re disruptive upfront because they run a lot of stunts. Not only on 3rd downs but on 1st and 2nd, they try to disrupt your running game; a lot of TEs, ETs, double TEs, which is something we haven’t seen yet.

“They involve their secondary in pressures as well. They’ve got a really nice menu of pressures on 3rd down, they’re exotic…They’re really stout up front. Their linebackers can absolutely roll; they are great tacklers on the back end with a lot of speed.”

Virginia’s defense gave North Carolina’s star quarterback, Drake Maye, very little room to operate Saturday. The Cavaliers kept the pressure on all night, finishing the game with two sacks, three tackles for loss, and several hits on the quarterback, one of which resulted in Virginia’s game-sealing interception.

Cristobal also shared a few thoughts on Virginia’s offense. Most notably, the Miami head coach has been impressed with the much-improved offensive line play this season.

“I think their offense they’re just gelling. They’re making explosive plays all over the place. They’re hard to cover (and) they run really hard. They did a lot of work on their offensive line (and) you can tell because of how they fit their combination blocks and the way they communicate; they are just in sync. And they operated at a very high level this past week.”

Miami and Virginia will get down to business on October 28 in the Hurricanes home of Hard Rock Stadium. Currently, Caesars Sportsbook has Miami favored by 19.0, with the over-under set at 47.5. ESPN’s matchup predictor also favors

The Hurricanes picking up their sixth win of the season, giving Cristobal and crew a 91.5 percent chance at victory on Saturday. You can catch all the action, which is set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT on the ACC Network.