Mario Cristobal met with reports following a crushing 42-38 loss to Syracuse. A summary of his comments is below:
On what Syracuse did to hurt Miami: They made the contested catch about 80-90% of the time. We had a difficult time covering them. The ball was out quick. We affected the quarterback early and then didn't affect him much as the game went on.
I haven't seen the Jalen Rivers penalty. He got called for a hold and that was a really big one. So a couple penalties really hurt us. I can't tell what they called with the personal foul there at the end. But I guess it related back to, they were executing a little bit better than we were. We were trying to play some man, we played some zone. You name it. We mixed it up as much as we could, and we did not have much success. We blew a couple assignments back there, too. And then they ran the ball more effectively than we should have allowed them to.
On the decision to kick the field goal: We used analytics. It was outside the ten-yard line with four minutes to go. The call was to get the points and get a stop. We had to get a stop anyways with four minutes. If the clock was run down more, it was a heavy go.
On losing a 21-0 lead: It's really, really disappointing. And like we always tell the team, we eat it all together. There's no hiding from accountability. We accomplished a lot this season, but we wanted this one. We wanted the opportunity that this one could lead to. And we came up short. That's on all of us, starting with myself. We don'y shy away from it.
On recruiting: I don't think that ever stops. You just never let it interfere with game planning and preparing everything else. We felt really prepared coming into this game. It showed early. Then some chinks started showing up. Credit to Syracuse for putting it together.
On keeping the team focused: You reemphasize reality. This tam won 10 football games against some really good opponents. And this last game came all the way down to the wire. This team really worked hard and busted its butt to put its best foot forward.
On what Syracuse did to hurt Miami: They made the contested catch about 80-90% of the time. We had a difficult time covering them. The ball was out quick. We affected the quarterback early and then didn't affect him much as the game went on.
I haven't seen the Jalen Rivers penalty. He got called for a hold and that was a really big one. So a couple penalties really hurt us. I can't tell what they called with the personal foul there at the end. But I guess it related back to, they were executing a little bit better than we were. We were trying to play some man, we played some zone. You name it. We mixed it up as much as we could, and we did not have much success. We blew a couple assignments back there, too. And then they ran the ball more effectively than we should have allowed them to.
On the decision to kick the field goal: We used analytics. It was outside the ten-yard line with four minutes to go. The call was to get the points and get a stop. We had to get a stop anyways with four minutes. If the clock was run down more, it was a heavy go.
On losing a 21-0 lead: It's really, really disappointing. And like we always tell the team, we eat it all together. There's no hiding from accountability. We accomplished a lot this season, but we wanted this one. We wanted the opportunity that this one could lead to. And we came up short. That's on all of us, starting with myself. We don'y shy away from it.
On recruiting: I don't think that ever stops. You just never let it interfere with game planning and preparing everything else. We felt really prepared coming into this game. It showed early. Then some chinks started showing up. Credit to Syracuse for putting it together.
On keeping the team focused: You reemphasize reality. This tam won 10 football games against some really good opponents. And this last game came all the way down to the wire. This team really worked hard and busted its butt to put its best foot forward.
