Mario Cristobal explains Miami's struggles stopping Rutgers' running game

Miami dropped its final game of the season, the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl, outclassed by a strong Rutgers‘ running game.

Rutgers averaged 4.6 yards per carry. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was steady enough to help control the flow of the game, which was important as the Scarlett Knights had a lead for the vast majority of the game.

“Really good running back. Really good running backs, I should say,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Their offensive line did a really good job. Got to give them credit as opposed to just saying that we could have done better. Got to give them credit. Obviously we have to improve. We’ve done better.”

Lead tailback Kyle Monangai contributed 25 carries for 163 yards and a touchdown for the Rutgers running game, leading the way. Quarterback Gavin Wimsatt scored twice on touchdown runs.

Miami was behind the 8-ball almost from jump as Rutgers took the early lead and then just leaned on it.

Cristobal broke down exactly where the blame fell for failing to stop the run during the bowl game.

“It falls on everybody,” Cristobal said. “Schematically you want to do everything possible to give yourself a chance, right, your fun fits. And I thought they did a really good job of hanging in their double-teams, the back press in the hole and biting that Mike linebacker and then spitting that thing out and bouncing it a couple of times, forcing the safety to make a play.

“A couple of times I felt that he baited those guys inside and broke it, and we loss contain, and he got outside. Other times he just ran through tackles. There were times we didn’t tackle well, particularly early in the football game.”

That Miami gave up so many rushing yards came as a bit of a surprise, as stopping the run was one of the team’s big strengths during the regular season. Shoot, the Hurricanes finished ranked 11th nationally in run defense, giving up only 105.6 yards per game.

That was about half of the total surrendered to the Rutgers running game in the Pinstripe Bowl.

“Schematically, you start mixing it up. We played everything,” Cristobal said. “We did bear. We brought some Mike plugs, Will plugs, outside pleasure, inside pressure, cross-blitzes. At times we got home and made some plays; other times they got us for some chunk plays.”

Whatever the case, it didn’t work for Miami. The Hurricanes finished their season 7-6 as a result, failing to pick up some key momentum from a bowl win headed into the offseason.