Mario Cristobal reveals message to Miami players after first loss

After taking a couple of seasons to rebuild the Miami Hurricanes program, head coach Mario Cristobal had Miami rolling to a 9-0 record. Then, the Hurricanes hit a roadblock and were upset by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets over the weekend.

Following the loss, Cristobal shared the message he’s going to send to his players. That the loss is their reality now and they are going to have to deal with it moving forward.

“The reality of it,” Mario Cristobal said. “Got to own it. Got to own every bit of it, all of us. In this profession, when you take one on the chin like that, you’ve got to be a grown man, you got to own it. There’s no finger pointing, there’s no — and by that, I mean starting of course with myself and every coach on the staff and every player, you just own it. And you don’t talk about it very much, you could just go do something about it.”

There’s now a tight race for the ACC Championship Game. SMU remains unbeaten in conference play. Meanwhile, Miami and Clemson are both sitting with one conference loss so far this season. There are also several teams still in the race with two or even three losses. Given that Miami doesn’t play Clemson or SMU, it’s going to be vital to avoid a second loss for the Hurricanes.

Next, Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes will regroup during a bye week. Then, it’s on Wake Forest and then Syracuse to finish up the season.

“We have a bye week with everything in front of us to play for to do something about it,” Cristobal said. “And to make sure that as sick as everyone’s feeling, that I hope we all feel sick to the point where it drives us to be better. Because certainly that was not our best football, nowhere near it.”

Paul Finebaum dismisses Miami as national championship contender

Following the loss to Georgia Tech, analyst Paul Finebaum dismissed the Miami Hurricanes as legitimate national championship contenders.

“Let me be clear here, Miami still has a very good shot at making the Playoff, should they run the table and win the ACC. But as far as them being legitimate — as far as them being a national contender, let us please bury that. How many close calls have we seen this year? Monumental comebacks. Yesterday, in Atlanta against Georgia Tech, what was going on here? I mean, please,” Finebaum said.

“This was really hard to follow at times. Yes, I know Miami made a very nice run at the end but you don’t lose to Georgia Tech if you want to be in the big boy conversation. Buried as far as hype. Alive in theory.”