The Canes moved to 4-0 with a dominant 50-15 victory over USF. Mario Cristobal met with reporters after the game to discuss the win:
Opening statement: First time we actually trailed this year. The second half response, we played cleaner and better Miami Hurricane football. Hats off to the defense, just a tremendous job finally getting accustomed to the tempo. We can practice it all we want, and we did. We did everything we possibly could to simulate them. But they're difficult. They're a good football team that’s got good coaches. They dialed it up pretty well.
But as the game went on, our guys started getting adjusted. And I thought the night was epitomized by Meesh’s interception and the offense taking over and going right down the field to score a touchdown. That's the brand of football we want to play. Looking forward now to the next opportunity.
On the first half issues on defense: We didn't get them on the ground. A lot of missed tackles. We're typically a little bit better on third down. I think they were 4-9 in the first half.
I thought some of their in-cuts hurt us a little bit, but we quickly snuck down the coverage a little bit. The internal part of our pressures and the pocket push was better. It caused more problems for their quarterback, and then we sacked them a couple times, got off field on third down. Our brand of football, we're about blocking, tackling, and getting guys on the ground.
On USF’s long drives in the first half: That's what you get when you play this outfit. They're going to run a lot of snaps, which means you're also going to get the ball back as well. If they want to make it a boat race, we're OK with that. We're comfortable with going back and forth exchanging possessions and hopefully getting more sevens and threes. That's what ended up happening.
I thought the stop at the end of the half was huge. Coming out and scoring at the beginning of the second half was huge. We don't play that offense all year. They go at a scorching pace, they really do. Their quarterback is a great player and their coach dials it up. You saw what he did when he was over at Tennessee. He's certainly doing a great job here at South Florida as well. I think the defense played really well once we got adjusted.
On Cam Ward: He spreads the ball out really, really well. We got a lot of man coverage in the first half. I'm talking about snugged up, press man, daring you to throw it, and making sure you don't run it. We're gonna go to the things that Coach Dawson and the staff have dialed up for man coverage. And we're very successful at it.
I know Cam's gonna be upset with himself. Some of those he missed by a hair. That's the kind of guy he is. He's always trying to get better, but he's dynamic. He continues to prove he's dynamic and a game changer for us.
On Isaiah Horton: He continues to show that true development has really taken it's course. He's playing some great football for us.
On Damian Martinez: We didn't run the ball early as much as we thought we would. But if you want to put them all in [the box], you’ve gotta defend outside. We're gonna play football to a certain standard and call certain things when people do that to us.
On his evaluation of the team through four games: It’s 1-0 every game. I would say that we're playing physical. Our line of scrimmage play is getting better and better. We kept Cam clean most of the night. I don't know if he was sacked at all. He got a couple pressures and scrambled out, but we stayed on blocks.
I'd say the best part about everything is that these guys like to work. We had an opportunity to play against these four different opponents, different conferences, and we're able to come out 1-0 every single week, which is great. We got better as those four games went on, and now it's conference play, which is a whole different animal. Nobody's content. We're excited about the progress. We're enthused and driven. But we want to get back to work.
They're resilient. There's no penalty, there's no injury, there's no score situation that our guys can't overcome. Their belief is strong because of the work. These guys are restless as it relates to wanting to get better. No settling. They know we could be a really good team. They know there's some things we've got to clean up. We just want to get to work.
On the RB room: Well, it's competitive depth, which is awesome. I think our guys have learned the hard truth about football. The only way to get the best out of your people is to provide them with consistent, real competition. One that puts them on edge and keeps them on their toes and has them every day fighting for their jobs. When you do that, you push your own limits and you get better. I think that position group epitomizes that.
On Markel Bell: He played an awesome game. He’s a giant of a human being and his heart is just as big. Markel loves to work. From the day he got here, all he wanted to do was work. Super grateful, super humble, just a full of gratitude. The sky's the limit for him. He's tough, he's physical. I love the guy, really do. He’s getting started.
On Samson Okunlola: Proud of Samson. Samson got in there as well and played a few snaps. Samson's going to be a really good player for us.
On Jalen Rivers: II think he'll be back here next week.
On what he told the team at halftime: Stop the [BS]. Sorry about the language, but that's the bottom line. I think we were anxious. We knew this was gonna be a physical game. We got off of what we are. If we want to really put on display what we are, we had to show it in the way we played, not the way we talked. Really proud of these guys for taking over that part in the locker room as leaders, as grown men, and putting our words into action and having a great second half. Great job by our team.
Opening statement: First time we actually trailed this year. The second half response, we played cleaner and better Miami Hurricane football. Hats off to the defense, just a tremendous job finally getting accustomed to the tempo. We can practice it all we want, and we did. We did everything we possibly could to simulate them. But they're difficult. They're a good football team that’s got good coaches. They dialed it up pretty well.
But as the game went on, our guys started getting adjusted. And I thought the night was epitomized by Meesh’s interception and the offense taking over and going right down the field to score a touchdown. That's the brand of football we want to play. Looking forward now to the next opportunity.
On the first half issues on defense: We didn't get them on the ground. A lot of missed tackles. We're typically a little bit better on third down. I think they were 4-9 in the first half.
I thought some of their in-cuts hurt us a little bit, but we quickly snuck down the coverage a little bit. The internal part of our pressures and the pocket push was better. It caused more problems for their quarterback, and then we sacked them a couple times, got off field on third down. Our brand of football, we're about blocking, tackling, and getting guys on the ground.
On USF’s long drives in the first half: That's what you get when you play this outfit. They're going to run a lot of snaps, which means you're also going to get the ball back as well. If they want to make it a boat race, we're OK with that. We're comfortable with going back and forth exchanging possessions and hopefully getting more sevens and threes. That's what ended up happening.
I thought the stop at the end of the half was huge. Coming out and scoring at the beginning of the second half was huge. We don't play that offense all year. They go at a scorching pace, they really do. Their quarterback is a great player and their coach dials it up. You saw what he did when he was over at Tennessee. He's certainly doing a great job here at South Florida as well. I think the defense played really well once we got adjusted.
On Cam Ward: He spreads the ball out really, really well. We got a lot of man coverage in the first half. I'm talking about snugged up, press man, daring you to throw it, and making sure you don't run it. We're gonna go to the things that Coach Dawson and the staff have dialed up for man coverage. And we're very successful at it.
I know Cam's gonna be upset with himself. Some of those he missed by a hair. That's the kind of guy he is. He's always trying to get better, but he's dynamic. He continues to prove he's dynamic and a game changer for us.
On Isaiah Horton: He continues to show that true development has really taken it's course. He's playing some great football for us.
On Damian Martinez: We didn't run the ball early as much as we thought we would. But if you want to put them all in [the box], you’ve gotta defend outside. We're gonna play football to a certain standard and call certain things when people do that to us.
On his evaluation of the team through four games: It’s 1-0 every game. I would say that we're playing physical. Our line of scrimmage play is getting better and better. We kept Cam clean most of the night. I don't know if he was sacked at all. He got a couple pressures and scrambled out, but we stayed on blocks.
I'd say the best part about everything is that these guys like to work. We had an opportunity to play against these four different opponents, different conferences, and we're able to come out 1-0 every single week, which is great. We got better as those four games went on, and now it's conference play, which is a whole different animal. Nobody's content. We're excited about the progress. We're enthused and driven. But we want to get back to work.
They're resilient. There's no penalty, there's no injury, there's no score situation that our guys can't overcome. Their belief is strong because of the work. These guys are restless as it relates to wanting to get better. No settling. They know we could be a really good team. They know there's some things we've got to clean up. We just want to get to work.
On the RB room: Well, it's competitive depth, which is awesome. I think our guys have learned the hard truth about football. The only way to get the best out of your people is to provide them with consistent, real competition. One that puts them on edge and keeps them on their toes and has them every day fighting for their jobs. When you do that, you push your own limits and you get better. I think that position group epitomizes that.
On Markel Bell: He played an awesome game. He’s a giant of a human being and his heart is just as big. Markel loves to work. From the day he got here, all he wanted to do was work. Super grateful, super humble, just a full of gratitude. The sky's the limit for him. He's tough, he's physical. I love the guy, really do. He’s getting started.
On Samson Okunlola: Proud of Samson. Samson got in there as well and played a few snaps. Samson's going to be a really good player for us.
On Jalen Rivers: II think he'll be back here next week.
On what he told the team at halftime: Stop the [BS]. Sorry about the language, but that's the bottom line. I think we were anxious. We knew this was gonna be a physical game. We got off of what we are. If we want to really put on display what we are, we had to show it in the way we played, not the way we talked. Really proud of these guys for taking over that part in the locker room as leaders, as grown men, and putting our words into action and having a great second half. Great job by our team.
