Mario Cristobal met with reporters to discuss the bye week and the upcoming game against Wake Forest. A summary of everything discussed is below:
On Damari Brown’s recovery: It's helped him come out of his shell a little bit. He comes from a great family. But he's very reserved, in a good way. Very focused, takes care of his business. When you go through something like that, you have to be engaged in different ways.
We don't allow guys to isolate during injury time. That's the worst thing you could do for players, let them kind of drift off, get in their own mental space. It's never good. So you've seen him develop just from a personality standpoint, engagement standpoint. He looks great. This is a big week for him because the reps will be taken and the work he'll be doing is as close to gameplay as it could possibly be. So we're working hard to get him ready. He's working hard to get himself ready. So is Ryan [Rodriguez] and so is Elijah [Alston].
On the senior class: They're the core. They have an experience that's very unique. I'm talking about the guys that have been here for a little bit. They've seen change. They've endured hardship. They've seen some tough times. They've gone through struggles. It’s an education that is priceless.
The class that just walked in has had a very different path to their development as compared to the ones that we're talking about, guys like Elijah Arroyo and Xavier Restrepo. It's really unique what they've done, what they've gone through, and I think it's made them more calloused in a good way. It certainly has grown their resilience and has helped others understand the importance and the urgency as it relates to every day.
On Andres Borregales: We've stated on several occasions how valuable he is. Maybe not enough, honestly. We feel he's the very best in the country. He's developed as a leader. He's really changed his body. That's one of the things that's going to propel him to having a great game on Saturday and the other games coming up and then later on in life. You almost try to test him every single week, and we do, and he comes through. Incredible young man.
On Wake Forest: It starts up front. They play with great technique. They play with great pad level. They're unique in their technique, too. They're quick, and the quick swim, the stunting, the stemming, pre-snap stemming, get you to change your line calls, the involvement of their secondary, particularly their safeties in the run game, to change the box count, to change the leverages, to change the picture. They've done a really good job on the back end, taking away certain route concepts against certain teams. They're very diligent in their studies and in changing what they do week-to-week as it relates to opponents. They really do a good job of taking away what a team does best.
And they're complimented by an offense that’s Top 25 in terms of moving the sticks and getting first downs. So many of their games go into the fourth quarter, and it's a one-possession game. It's due to the fact they play very good complementary football. But it starts up front. Their defensive line, they're very well coached. They've got a couple of really disruptive players with a lot of statistical data to back that up. But when you ask our players what stands out, right away they all say they play really hard. They play the game the right way.
On potentially going undefeated at home: It'd be a strong statement. You have so many goals that you talk about when the season starts, and certainly that's one of them. You always want to make your home place a tough place to play. The beauty is that it ties in directly to the ultimate goal being 1-0 on Saturday. This one just happens to be the last one at Hard Rock.
Our fans have done a great job all year – at home and away traveling – and we want to make sure that that they continue to feel a tighter and stronger bond to the Miami Hurricanes football program. I think they're starting to get to know our guys, they're starting to get to know our people, our personalities. You've got local guys that have been stars in the community since they've been this tall. And you've got guys coming from all over the country that have made themselves very big names for themselves here. They've taken in the city as much as the city's taken them. We're very proud to represent the city and the community. But I'm just going to keep doing the same thing: back to Wake Forest.
On Damari Brown’s recovery: It's helped him come out of his shell a little bit. He comes from a great family. But he's very reserved, in a good way. Very focused, takes care of his business. When you go through something like that, you have to be engaged in different ways.
We don't allow guys to isolate during injury time. That's the worst thing you could do for players, let them kind of drift off, get in their own mental space. It's never good. So you've seen him develop just from a personality standpoint, engagement standpoint. He looks great. This is a big week for him because the reps will be taken and the work he'll be doing is as close to gameplay as it could possibly be. So we're working hard to get him ready. He's working hard to get himself ready. So is Ryan [Rodriguez] and so is Elijah [Alston].
On the senior class: They're the core. They have an experience that's very unique. I'm talking about the guys that have been here for a little bit. They've seen change. They've endured hardship. They've seen some tough times. They've gone through struggles. It’s an education that is priceless.
The class that just walked in has had a very different path to their development as compared to the ones that we're talking about, guys like Elijah Arroyo and Xavier Restrepo. It's really unique what they've done, what they've gone through, and I think it's made them more calloused in a good way. It certainly has grown their resilience and has helped others understand the importance and the urgency as it relates to every day.
On Andres Borregales: We've stated on several occasions how valuable he is. Maybe not enough, honestly. We feel he's the very best in the country. He's developed as a leader. He's really changed his body. That's one of the things that's going to propel him to having a great game on Saturday and the other games coming up and then later on in life. You almost try to test him every single week, and we do, and he comes through. Incredible young man.
On Wake Forest: It starts up front. They play with great technique. They play with great pad level. They're unique in their technique, too. They're quick, and the quick swim, the stunting, the stemming, pre-snap stemming, get you to change your line calls, the involvement of their secondary, particularly their safeties in the run game, to change the box count, to change the leverages, to change the picture. They've done a really good job on the back end, taking away certain route concepts against certain teams. They're very diligent in their studies and in changing what they do week-to-week as it relates to opponents. They really do a good job of taking away what a team does best.
And they're complimented by an offense that’s Top 25 in terms of moving the sticks and getting first downs. So many of their games go into the fourth quarter, and it's a one-possession game. It's due to the fact they play very good complementary football. But it starts up front. Their defensive line, they're very well coached. They've got a couple of really disruptive players with a lot of statistical data to back that up. But when you ask our players what stands out, right away they all say they play really hard. They play the game the right way.
On potentially going undefeated at home: It'd be a strong statement. You have so many goals that you talk about when the season starts, and certainly that's one of them. You always want to make your home place a tough place to play. The beauty is that it ties in directly to the ultimate goal being 1-0 on Saturday. This one just happens to be the last one at Hard Rock.
Our fans have done a great job all year – at home and away traveling – and we want to make sure that that they continue to feel a tighter and stronger bond to the Miami Hurricanes football program. I think they're starting to get to know our guys, they're starting to get to know our people, our personalities. You've got local guys that have been stars in the community since they've been this tall. And you've got guys coming from all over the country that have made themselves very big names for themselves here. They've taken in the city as much as the city's taken them. We're very proud to represent the city and the community. But I'm just going to keep doing the same thing: back to Wake Forest.
