Mario Cristobal sends clear message to players about effort amid rebuild

Mario Cristobal knows that building a program takes time. But after Miami suffered a blowout loss to Duke on Saturday, he had a stern — but clear — message for his players.

“Someone stops playing hard, you’ve got to go play somewhere else. What we’ve got to do requires stuff people,” Cristobal said in his postgame press conference. To turn a program, rebuild it, requires tough-minded people that are willing to do the work. If that shows up on tape, you’ve got to find somewhere else.

“Some guys have played really well, some guys have played hard. We’ll go from there.”

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Mario Cristobal on second quarter vs. Duke: ‘That was regression’

Miami started out hot with a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but gave up 17 unanswered points in the second quarter en route to a 45-21 loss to Duke at home Saturday afternoon. Mario Cristobal didn’t point to any players in particular because he hasn’t watched the tape yet, but still made it clear he wants to see more out of his players.

“We’re improving our ability to practice, our capacity to practice … we’ve made some progress in certain areas,” Cristobal said. “Listen, that was regression. After a fast start and then in the second quarter, taking a dive. The third quarter, came out and played with some good passion, executed well. Took the lead in the game. They came back, they drove and they scored after that. All out of sorts. Fumbles, ball security, huge point of emphasis. We’ve done everything we’ve can. We’ve got to do more because whatever we’ve done has not worked. We fumbled the ball, and then we gave up some pressures that allowed them to get some sacks.

“Sometimes, it’s determining protection that way, sometimes we bring in pressure away from the protection. Sometimes, the ball’s got to get out, sometimes, it’s got to be picked up. It’s a little bit of everything. We got the quarterback hit and we didn’t establish the run game. We’re not knocking people back like we need to to help the passing game. We’ve made some progress on offense the past couple weeks and then, it looked like we were going to get off to a strong start, and we didn’t. You take complete responsibility as a head coach, as a program, and I did. It’s got to be real tough. Unfortunately, you’ve got to go through some painful steps, but we cause our own painful steps. Extra painful steps that we don’t need. Back to work.”

Cristobal on players playing hard: ‘I don’t think it’s magical’

Cristobal added players don’t just start playing hard. It’s a mentality, and it’s one he wants to instill in the Miami program as he builds it from the ground up.

The tale will lie in the tape, he said.

“You either fix it or you get people that care and play as hard as you’re supposed to as a Miami Hurricane,” Cristobal said. “I don’t think it’s magical. I don’t think it’s appropriate also to say some wouldn’t play as hard because other teams make plays, too. I think you have to look at the tape to thoroughly assess it because there’s nothing worse than saying someone didn’t play hard when they played hard. Maybe they got run through and didn’t tackle a guy, maybe they weren’t able to sustain a collision and get a guy to the ground.

“But the rest, most importantly, of all the things is understanding that when you go through something like this and you’re rebuilding a program and you get hit in the face like this, we’ve got to be tough enough to look each other in the eye and stick together and go to work. It doesn’t magically get better, OK? You’ve got to go to work and that’s the only focus. That’s what they’ve got to do.”