Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal and player reaction post-Miami (Ohio)

Miami coach Mario Cristobal and players after the win against Miami (Ohio):

Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami HC Mario Cristobal
Postgame Press Conference Transcripts: Miami (Ohio)

Opening Statement…

“Good evening. I appreciate you guys sticking around and I certainly appreciate our fans waiting through the initial lightning delay, because they made it fun. They made it fun out there. We played a lot of guys tonight and played a pretty solid brand of football. I was certainly proud of the way our defensive guys came out and put a lot of pressure on their offense. They got us some really good field position and, while we didn’t capitalize all the time, we put a couple good drives together. We started a little something in the red zone and then they got back and got themselves a field goal. That one field goal before halftime brought a lot of momentum. That was a really good job by the offense putting that together. And then the second half, we just started to methodically take over the football game. I’m proud of the offensive and defensive lines. I felt they controlled the line of scrimmage for a majority of the game. They make it difficult with their angles, with their leverage, with their numbers in the run game. They sure bring a lot of pressure and our guys did a decent job; the defensive line put a ton of pressure on their guys.”

On a new blocking scheme…

“We showed it last year but it’s just different body types executing them, so it didn’t look as clean [last season]. We are a little bit bigger up front. It’s a little bit of everybody. Shannon Dawson has done a lot of offense in his life. Certainly, we have some things that we’ve done before, as well, so it’s really a good blend. All in all, it looks a little bit different, but there’s some similarities.”

On overall takeaways from the first game…

“I figured they were going to be tough to run the ball against. If you watched them play Kentucky, they held Kentucky to 15 yards rushing and made it difficult to score and they have a big offensive line over there. We felt that it would be a physical battle and we’d have to just keep wearing them down and the defense was going to have to make some stops. The penalty to prevent from scoring down in the red zone was a monster penalty. It certainly gave them some life and put a few points on the board for them and gave them hope. After that, we started taking control of the game, finally. We had some opportunities early and we didn’t capitalize. It was good to see our team respond and start making enough plays, moving the sticks enough, making enough stops to start to take control of the game.”

On the performance of the running back group…

“It’s kind of what Tim Harris, Jr. has been talking about all week. They’ve all been competing and competing hard. It was hard to tell who was separating, but you probably saw some of that tonight. Everybody looks good. Look at Don [Chaney, Jr.]’s run at the end and then Ajay [Allen] comes out and breaks that run out to the side and, wait a second, Mark Fletcher, Jr.’s run went over some people for a touchdown. It’s the way it should be. When Miami’s been really good, you remember those running back rooms, right? What they were like with Edgerrin James, Najeh Davenport, James Jackson, and then you have Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee and Frank Gore. I’m not saying we are there yet, but I’m saying that that type of competition, we benefit a lot from it and we intend to keep that competition going.”

On the performance of Tyler Van Dyke…

“You know, I thought he performed really well. He’d love to have the interception back. He’s really hard on himself. He was really efficient. He put us in the right plays, made the right decisions in the run game, as well. He carries a lot when he runs this offense. There’s a lot of autonomy that goes with it and I thought he did a great, great job.”

On the play of the defense…

“Aggressive. I saw a team that played fast. I saw a team that played to their training, since January; A commitment to increasing our level of physicality and speed. They’re playing with a bit more power. And then, Coach Guidry, and how highly we think of him, he put it together. If you watch film with him, he’s not going to be completely happy. He’s going to find a lot of stuff to fix. But he is going to be happy with the effort. He is going to be enthused and encouraged by the progress of this defense and some of the things we can get better at. All in all, a solid performance but there is a lot of room for improvement and we recognized that as we walked off the field.”

Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami (Ohio) HC Chuck Martin
Postgame Press Conference Transcripts: Miami

Opening Statement…

“Obviously, they’re a really talented group. I felt good about our defense. I thought our defense played their tails off in the first half. It should have been 13-3; the last drive of the first half was bad. They were kind of trying to run the clock out, they gauge us on couple big runs and next thing you know they get a field goal. We should’ve went to half 13-3. After they jumped out seven to nothing, our defense found ways to get stops. They were up seven to nothing a minute into the game and our defense found a way to hold them to six points [before the late field goal]. They were really fighting. Offensively, obviously, we didn’t really get anything done. We had like two or three first downs in the first half and couldn’t run the ball at all. And when you can’t run it and you’re one-dimensional and they are pressuring and playing man, we’ve got to win some one-on-one matchups. We tried to push the ball down the field. We came here to win a game, we didn’t make the plays in the first half, pushing it down the field. We didn’t really make the plays the last three minutes of the game pushing it downfield. If they’re going to pressure and play man, you’ve got to soften them up by making some big plays, which we didn’t do. They protected their quarterback really well and as the game went on our defense played too many snaps. That’s not their fault, that’s mostly our offense’s fault, but we left them on the field too long and they kind of stayed with their run game. As we got worn down, they ran the ball better and better in the second half. So, our defense definitely got worn down. Credit to Miami; they stayed on the field offensively and we didn’t stay on the field offensively. So, that’s going to be the result, it’s not by accident, it’s not bad luck. It’s, we’ve got to move the ball offensively and get our guys good rest and give them a chance not to play so many dang plays as they did on defense. So, obviously, the second half, we got worn down and we still didn’t get much done on offense. We couldn’t block them in the run game enough to sustain anything in the run game. We didn’t want to be one-dimensional. We probably ran it too much, probably should have chucked it around a little more, but I was at least trying to fight to stay in there and it did not work out. So, credit to them. They are a big, physical, athletic team. Obviously, they’ve got a bunch of talented players – big, strong athletic dudes. Their defense was very aggressive and got after us and we didn’t handle it. So, we’re going to have to handle that better in the future.”

On the experience gained from this game…

“Yeah, you should learn a lot of lessons. We played a really good football team on the road. And when we watch the tape, if you’re self-aware, you’re going to see, ‘Okay, well this where we were short and this is where we’re going to keep working to improve.’ And again, we’re never going to make excuses. Credit to Miami, they dented our d-line and protected their quarterback. We didn’t dent their d-line in the run game and … sometimes our protection was off, but we didn’t protect our quarterback enough and give him enough time. [It was] very different when our guy dropped back and their guy dropped back. So, we’re going to continue and look at everything. From a coaching standpoint, week one, you’ve got to look at, ‘Okay, what did we do good today? And what was, maybe, out of our control that Miami just had a better guy there than we did? And then what is in our control that we didn’t do as well or this could have worked better?’ So, we’ve got to evaluate. We’re all in this together, but it starts and ends with me. You lose 38-3, the head coach didn’t get it done. So, we’ve got to do a better job on offense and we’re going to do a better job on offense. And I think our defense showed they can be pretty darn good. Special teams was good, after that opening kickoff which was disappointing, but our punter punted the ball well and we made a 48-yard field goal. The one kicker, he kicked everything out of the end zone, but one we had a good return when they gave us a chance. So, there were some good things on ‘ST.’ We think we can be really good on ‘ST’ and we’re going to have to be.”