Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal and player reaction post Wake Forest

Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal and players weigh in after the Canes’ game.

Tune in for what they are saying:

Opening statement…

We obviously had a bunch of seniors today and it’s Senior Day but at the same time they have a lot of football to play so we didn’t spend a lot of time on that but certainly thankful to them because that’s the most important part of any program your players. They closed out a regular season at home undefeated which was a big feat for us. Lot of progress. I know there’s a lot of people that I’ve known for a long time since I played that (say) defending home base and playing winning football at home was always right at the top of the food chain and top of the priority list. I also want to acknowledge our fans for coming out all year long and doing a really good job supporting this team. Every single week whether it be home or away but today the focus is on the ones that were here and have been here all year because we certainly felt them all year long. We’re thankful for that, and that will keep getting stronger and stronger.

The story of the game was the defense without a doubt. After that first series and the busted coverage that’s what Miami Hurricane defense should look like. And then offensively we had our struggles. We caused a lot of it ourselves with penalties, miscues, dropped balls and some turnovers. But the defense we leaned on them and they came through in a big-time way even when they were on short fields. I hadn’t seen a defensive performance like that anywhere in a long time. That was really awesome and they certainly deserve all the credit and all the mention of the game.

On if the defense needed a performance like the one Saturday…

“We felt it during the bye week. Even though they scored first, we were more along the lines of, ‘Everybody settle down.’ The couple things that hurt us on that drive, we’ve been good at, and we fixed them. We’re going to play better against those particular things – the formations, the alignments and the routes. It was a tremendous turnaround for them, in terms of communication, alignment, assignment. Those guys were able to play fast and they played with an edge today. They knew the game was going to come down to them providing stops, because we’ve been really good offensively all year. We had our struggles [today]. We play as a team. In November, it’s funny…in November, you take the games, you take the wins as you can get them. It was really important to get that one today.”

On going 1-0 next week resulting in a trip to Charlotte and the ACC Championship Game…

“The entire focus is on getting better, and to play against a really good team at their place in the dome [Carrier Dome]. I haven’t been up there in a long, long time. Certainly a tough place to play. And they’re a really good football team. I know they won today, as I was walking out of the locker room. Certainly all focus and attention has already been turned to that game.”

On the play of RB Jordan Lyle…

“You’ve seen it since camp. The guy is a really good football player. He’s explosive. We’ve been really healthy at [running] back all year, and may we stay that way. Sometimes, with the way the ball comes out in the RPO game, sometimes you don’t get as many touches as we planned in the course of the game, but his work ethic, his performance in practice, it warranted him getting the ball today. When he got the opportunity, he made it happen in a big time way. Great job by him and a bunch of other guys.”

On the efficiency of the offense on first down…

“All year long, it’s been a pretty good characteristic of what we do offensively. There are some things we did [well]. We were in third-and-manageable for the most part. All of it was created by the defense. The momentum they created, they never flinched. Ball turned over inside the 20, inside the 35…they just kept playing. A really, really special effort by those guys. And certainly, their momentum and their energy at the end of the game helped the offense catch some fire with good field position and made some scores happen.”

On biggest adjustment by defense during bye week…

“Communication, alignment, assignment, and really, the leadership council and the players on this football team, they decided they had had enough and they were going to make things better from top to bottom, and they did. They went out here today and they proved it. You don’t want to allow a touchdown, but I thought it was neat that after they scored on their opening possession, that that was it. There was another miscue on special teams, where we allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown. Hats off to the defense and all those players, they played unbelievable.”

On the play of DB Meesh Powell and what he has meant to the program…

“Really smart. Self-starting team player. Loves the game of football. Really loves his teammates and plays hard for them. Prepares hard with them. He’s all about being a great teammate and all about winning. You can’t say anything but super positive things about him. He’s like these other guys back there…these guys are unique, because they’ve seen a lot of football and they’ve played a lot of football. This means the world to them. Even though sometimes it may not look pretty, they’re going to do whatever it takes to get it done and to find a way to get that 1-0.”

Miami Hurricanes Football: Wake Forest HC Dave Clawson Postgame Press Conference Transcripts

Opening statement…

“I was really proud of how hard our guys played. You know, we got that thing to the fourth quarter as a one-score game. Obviously it got away from us at the end with a turnover and some big plays. Our plan into the game was to try to make it a low possession game. We were going to go for it on fourth down, we had to hold them to field goals in the red zone. I think going into half, I felt we had them exactly where we wanted them and we didn’t take advantage of opportunities in the third quarter when we had the ball at midfield. With Miami and their offense, it’s a matter of time. I thought our defense played really, really well. But in the fourth quarter, when the dam broke, it broke and that’s what good teams do. They’re a good football team and certainly have a great chance to win the ACC. But once again, we came up short. With that I’ll take questions.” 

On what made the defense so special in the first three quarters…

“Well we limited big plays. Part of it with Miami, is that they make so many explosive plays and Cam Ward is such a gifted, talented quarterback we just had to limit the amount of explosives. Our whole thing was that we’re going to move the ball and if we can keep them in front of us and try to get them to kick field goals in the red zone, that would be our way of staying in the game and that worked for three quarters.”  

On what changed from the first drive on offense, when Wake Forest scored a touchdown…

“Yeah, Miami’s really good up front so, and they’re really good the secondary. They have a talented defense. We struggled to block them in protection, when I watched the film, we didn’t have much separation. They do a really good job in coverage…they’re a good football team.”

On running the ball more effectively in the first half than in the second half…

“Well in the second half, they just ran a ton of edge pressure, cover one…so in the first half, we had some favorable boxes and we had some good runs. In the second half, it was just a ton of edge pressure cover one, and you’re outnumbered in the run game. When it’s a cover one game, if  you can’t hold up in protection and you can’t separate, it gets really hard. You’ve got to be able to hold up and you’ve got to get separation. I’m sure there’s a few times on film we’ll say we got open, but they’ve got a really good [defensive] line. We knew that going into the game. That was our biggest fear…if it became a pressure cover one game, number one, could we hold up? And could we separate? I don’t think we did either really well.”

On if he sensed the team having confidence heading into the fourth quarter…

“I sensed we had a lot of confidence at halftime. And our whole goal, when we play some of these high-level teams, our goal is to get to the fourth quarter and have it be a one-score game. And at that point, anything can happen and today, anything did happen. But nothing that was good. We had the turnover on the kickoff return, we had the ball a fair amount of times at midfield. I thought when we were down six [points] and we had the ball inside the 25 yard line, those two sacks were really, really costly. That took us out of field goal range, and at that point if you can just kick a field goal and make it a three-point game, the whole game gets managed differently at the end.

“If you told me we would be down six at the half and in a one score game in the fourth quarter, I would have taken it. But you’re only going to hold them down for so long. The skill they have at quarterback, at tailback, at receiver, at tight end…it’s elite skill. And we had a hard time tackling their backs the whole day. I mean there were not too many times that the backs got in space that the tackle went backwards. And again they’re really good, they’re an elite football team, and I’m really proud of how hard our players played. I think our guys played extremely hard. I don’t think there’s one bit of quit in them. But this was an uphill game and we had a chance to win it in the end and we needed some things to go right and they didn’t go right.”

On the offense not keeping things rolling

A: “Sometimes you play really good players that beat you. They have a really, really good defensive line and it is really talented, and they have some guys at corner. Sometimes when teams make it a pressure, ‘cover one’ game, you’ve got to be able to win a lot of individual matchups. When a team is playing zone and bringing zone pressures, those are things you can concede. When a team is a pressure ‘cover one’ team and you’re not winning individual matchups up front, and you’re not getting separation in the back end, the game gets really hard.

“I think as teams have studied us and there’s 11 games on film, there’s much more of an approach of, ‘We’ve got to stop Demond Claiborne. We’re going to outnumber the box, we’re going to try and get isolations with our pass rush and if we lose, we’re not going to lose because of Demond Claiborne.’ This was a similar challenge we had when we first got here in 2014 and 2015. We really struggled against ‘cover one’ pressure teams. As we got into 2017, and John Wolford started heating up a bit and we had Scottie Washington and some other guys on the outside that could consistently win for us, it became a much different game. Today we just didn’t win those match ups.

“Every time it was third down I’d watch the video. I don’t like taking sacks, but people weren’t open. You get to the first read, the second read and then there’s a guy in his lap. I agree with you. I thought our defense played really well today. We didn’t play well on offense. Part of it was we played a little bit more conservatively. We wanted to run the ball more because of how many turnovers we’ve had the last two weeks. We didn’t want to lose the game on offense through turnovers. That was from my direction. That was from me. And because of that, there was a little more third down run. We didn’t want to lose the game on third-and-long. Then you get to the second half and late in the third quarter and the fourth quarter, and if you don’t do those things you’re not going to give yourself a chance to win.”