Cristobal confident in Hurricanes' depth. Will it finally get them over the hump?

Miami Herald

12 hours ago

Mario Cristobal has told the story a few times during the past couple months. It was April 30, 2022, and he was on the tarmac about to take off on a flight as the three-day NFL Draft was wrapping up. The Miami Hurricanes, his alma mater and the team he had taken over as head coach four-and-a-half months earlier, was on the verge of potentially not having a player selected for the first time since 1974.
Jonathan Ford was eventually selected in the seventh round, keeping the streak alive, but Cristobal uses this as an example of how one should measure the Hurricanes' progress as he enters his fourth season.
'I think it's important to paint the picture,' Cristobal said at the ACC's Football Kickoff in July, 'because if you want to tell a story, let's make sure we tell the story from the starting point of what it looked like so we have an accurate depiction for what that story really is.'
Cristobal's story is still being written, but there have been clear strides each year since his arrival.
The on-field record shows the slow-but-steady climb from 5-7 in 2022 with almost entirely players he inherited to 7-6 in 2023 to 10-3 and nearly an appearance in both the ACC Championship Game and College Football Playoff in 2024.
The Hurricanes have had 14 players selected in the NFL Draft during his three seasons, including seven (featuring the No. 1 overall pick in Cam Ward) in 2025 — the most UM players selected in a single year since 2017. Miami could potentially have three first-round selections next April in offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. and quarterback Carson Beck (if he can return to his 2023 form). UM hasn't had three players selected in the first round of the same draft since 2007 (Brandon Meriweather No. 24, Jon Beason No. 25 and Greg Olsen No. 31).
'I think it's evident in the players we have here today,' Cristobal said of the Hurricanes' progress. 'It's evident in the progression of our football team. It's evident in the talent acquisition and the development of those players and the way that things are progressing for our program in general, on and off the field.'
Now, it's a matter of taking that final step and that talent translating into the ultimate results on the field in the form of titles and championships.
With a top-10 matchup to begin the 2025 season looming in less than two weeks — No. 10 Miami hosts the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Aug. 31 at Hard Rock Stadium — Cristobal feels he has the most complete roster of his tenure. He is pleased with the depth, noting that the goal is to have a depth chart where he's comfortable with the starters and the backups being contributors. That's not always possible anymore with the constant player movement created by the transfer portal, but Cristobal said the Hurricanes have put themselves 'in position to be successful because of competitive depth, caliber of player and systematics.'
'There hasn't been a year where we haven't felt better going into the season about what we have put together. That doesn't stop now.' Cristobal said Tuesday morning on a radio appearance on WQAM's The Joe Rose Show, adding he feels UM is 'more on par with the rest of the country' this season.
With two-and-a-half weeks of practices and a pair of scrimmages in the books, the Hurricanes have now shifted their focus from working on themselves to preparing for Notre Dame.
With kickoff fast approaching, the Hurricanes' goal now is to fine-tune what they have left before the season begins.
'We feel good that we know what we can do well and what we need to work on,' Cristobal said. 'We put the guys in a lot of live situations in the past couple weeks. Some have stepped up and been ready and some showed some hiccups under the lights — and that is all right. You make sure you are very blunt and very direct in making sure you get players feedback. You continue to enhance the ones that keep doing well. You find what you do well and what you are going to be from an identity standpoint and you roll with it.'