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Mario Cristobal made an appearance on the Joe Rose Show Thursday morning to break down the nation’s #3 recruiting class and more.
Asked if he knew about Central DL Armondo Blount’s flip from FSU prior to the announcement:
“I’m a good poker player. I’m always gonna hold my cards,” Cristobal laughed. “You can tell there was a natural connection there. Awesome family, awesome mom and dad – incredible young man that wanted to be a Hurricane. He connected well with our players and wanted to be coached by our defensive line coaches,” he added.
Potential instant impact of this class
“I wouldn’t be surprised if anybody in this class (got snaps). That was the whole goal with this class…We expect this class to be as good or better (than last year’s group). There’s going to be opportunities galore for these guys and they are capable. We expect the world of them.”
On safety ZaQuan Patterson
“He makes his presence known immediately. If you go out to a game there’s all sorts of stuff flying – chinstraps, buckles, earpads. I mean this guy is knocking people around, and he’s doing it in all phases. He’s a special teams monster. Really smart, instinctive player. Great acceleration, body control. He’s exactly what you want at that position and has a ton of versatility as well.”
Landing four players from powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas
“What can you say? They do an unbelievable job. Coach Harriott, I mean everybody at that school there’s great relationships with. Twan Russell is the Athletic Director and he does a great job with their players.”
The wide receiver class
“Three guys that are complete game-changers – speed and power. Chance Robinson, what can you say about him? He already looks like a grown man. He’s the one who kickstarted the class after our spring game. This recruiting stuff is a marathon and he’s been steady all year long as a commitment with all these people coming after him. Great family, great football player.
“Just like Chance, I’ve been after JoJo (Trader) forever. I feel like I’ve been recruiting him since the 6th grade. Another guy with unbelievable ball skills, speed, explosiveness, and he loves football. These guys have played with each other and know each other and want to see each other be great.”
“Ny Carr is another guy like these guys – he’s a rocketship. He’s a 10.4-10.5 100M guy from Georgia. Was committed to Georgia for a while and we saw an opportunity there. Another great family.”
On turning the roster over and what they were looking for in this class
“We felt like going in, we were still about 50-60% of the way there in terms of the roster. That was always the biggest area of concern to address. Now on two years, similarly to what I had to do in Oregon, you just have to flip the roster. If you look at this year, we wanted to hit a homerun at the DLine position the way we did with OLine last year. We want to continue toi elevate the quarterback position, we wanted speed, guys who could take the top off the coverage at receiver. We need guys who can play man coverage – we aren’t done at DB. We need defensive backs who can cover and get guys on the ground in space. We wanted running backs who can run by you or run through. And we wanted to enhance the OLine class and land a really dynamic tight end which we got in Elija Lofton. At linebacker we wanted a large, explosive sideline to sideline backers but also someone who can knock you in the mouth.
On Miami’s pursuit of a quarterback via the transfer portal
“Back to poker, you never show your cards,” Cristobal joked. “We’ve got great ones here and we’re certainly always on the hunt. It’s public some of the things we’re doing and who we are looking at. We feel great about both things – what we’re looking to do and working on, but we feel good about the young guys in the building.”
On JUCO OT Markel Bell
“He’s 6-8 if he sits with a curve. He’s a human eclipse – a complete monstrosity of a human being, but he’s extremely athletic. His range, his hips, his feet, everything. He’s flexible, mobile, athletic, and heavy-handed. A difference maker right away.”
On the transfer portal
“We’re not close to being done, brother. We’ve been at it this morning. We’ve still got work to do.”
Asked if he knew about Central DL Armondo Blount’s flip from FSU prior to the announcement:
“I’m a good poker player. I’m always gonna hold my cards,” Cristobal laughed. “You can tell there was a natural connection there. Awesome family, awesome mom and dad – incredible young man that wanted to be a Hurricane. He connected well with our players and wanted to be coached by our defensive line coaches,” he added.
Potential instant impact of this class
“I wouldn’t be surprised if anybody in this class (got snaps). That was the whole goal with this class…We expect this class to be as good or better (than last year’s group). There’s going to be opportunities galore for these guys and they are capable. We expect the world of them.”
On safety ZaQuan Patterson
“He makes his presence known immediately. If you go out to a game there’s all sorts of stuff flying – chinstraps, buckles, earpads. I mean this guy is knocking people around, and he’s doing it in all phases. He’s a special teams monster. Really smart, instinctive player. Great acceleration, body control. He’s exactly what you want at that position and has a ton of versatility as well.”
Landing four players from powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas
“What can you say? They do an unbelievable job. Coach Harriott, I mean everybody at that school there’s great relationships with. Twan Russell is the Athletic Director and he does a great job with their players.”
The wide receiver class
“Three guys that are complete game-changers – speed and power. Chance Robinson, what can you say about him? He already looks like a grown man. He’s the one who kickstarted the class after our spring game. This recruiting stuff is a marathon and he’s been steady all year long as a commitment with all these people coming after him. Great family, great football player.
“Just like Chance, I’ve been after JoJo (Trader) forever. I feel like I’ve been recruiting him since the 6th grade. Another guy with unbelievable ball skills, speed, explosiveness, and he loves football. These guys have played with each other and know each other and want to see each other be great.”
“Ny Carr is another guy like these guys – he’s a rocketship. He’s a 10.4-10.5 100M guy from Georgia. Was committed to Georgia for a while and we saw an opportunity there. Another great family.”
On turning the roster over and what they were looking for in this class
“We felt like going in, we were still about 50-60% of the way there in terms of the roster. That was always the biggest area of concern to address. Now on two years, similarly to what I had to do in Oregon, you just have to flip the roster. If you look at this year, we wanted to hit a homerun at the DLine position the way we did with OLine last year. We want to continue toi elevate the quarterback position, we wanted speed, guys who could take the top off the coverage at receiver. We need guys who can play man coverage – we aren’t done at DB. We need defensive backs who can cover and get guys on the ground in space. We wanted running backs who can run by you or run through. And we wanted to enhance the OLine class and land a really dynamic tight end which we got in Elija Lofton. At linebacker we wanted a large, explosive sideline to sideline backers but also someone who can knock you in the mouth.
On Miami’s pursuit of a quarterback via the transfer portal
“Back to poker, you never show your cards,” Cristobal joked. “We’ve got great ones here and we’re certainly always on the hunt. It’s public some of the things we’re doing and who we are looking at. We feel great about both things – what we’re looking to do and working on, but we feel good about the young guys in the building.”
On JUCO OT Markel Bell
“He’s 6-8 if he sits with a curve. He’s a human eclipse – a complete monstrosity of a human being, but he’s extremely athletic. His range, his hips, his feet, everything. He’s flexible, mobile, athletic, and heavy-handed. A difference maker right away.”
On the transfer portal
“We’re not close to being done, brother. We’ve been at it this morning. We’ve still got work to do.”
