Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. It’s just not Mario Cristobal’s thing. He remembers his final game playing at the University of Miami, of course, a clunker after four mostly golden years and can define it in a word if asked.
“Disappointing,” he said of that infamous 34-13 loss to Alabama in the 1993 Sugar bowl.
He remembers his last opponent on the Miami sideline in 2006, an offensive line coach about to be a head coach at Florida International University.
“Boston College,” he said of an unranked Miami’s 17-14 win in the regular-season finale.
But there’s no tug of nostalgia or even deep introspection in any of this as he returns to a Miami sideline in Saturday’s opener against Bethune Cookman. Ask him what he’s thinking as he’ll run through the white smoke onto the field and he’s not going to wax poetic or even consider it too hard.
“The game itself, helping the players,” he said. “I don’t stray from that because that’s the path of the obligations. I know, I promise you, deep down inside there are a lot of things to get stirred up and riled up, but I control what I think and say and do.
“Every ounce of me is pouring into having the University of Miami operating at the optimum level.”
He brings an offensive lineman’s mindset, an offensive lineman’s work ethic, an offensive lineman’s no-nonsense idea to the job. There’s room for some history. He has referred to the Greentree Practice Fields as, “sacred ground,” considering all the great teams that have practiced there.
So he knows what’s expected of him at Miami — what he must expect of himself, too. He was at Miami for two national titles, one as a player in 1991 and one as a graduate assistant in 2001. But here’s the introductory question to his first season:
Does it matter if Miami is 8-4 or 10-2 this year?
Isn’t this all about laying the foundation of his program and recruiting for tomorrow? Cristobal’s time is different in this manner. He’s a proven coach trying to build something lasting. For once, a Miami coach has the resources to do so, too.
Miami officials privately say previous coach Manny Diaz didn’t know what he needed — and neither did they. That’s why this new era has a chance. The money’s there as evidenced just by hiring Cristobal. Have him teaming with athletic director Dan Radakovich who helped build Clemson’s program and you see how this can succeed.
Back to today’s question: What’s the bar of success for this first season? Miami has been picked by the media to win the ACC’s Coastal Division. It’s been picked six times since 2005. It’s won once. So take that for what it’s worth.
Here are two more fundamental measures to tell if Cristobal’s program is moving in the right direction: Tackling and penalties. They’re not sexy like, say, a win against Texas A&M or an ACC title. But let’s start with fundamentals before getting to the bigger stuff.
Miami was such a poor tackling team in recent years one former Hurricane star said the first question he had for Diaz’s staff was how they taught tackling. Cristobal and new defensive coordinator, Kevin Steele, evidently saw the same. They keep repeating a similar mantra about tackling.
“We’re going to tackle, and we’re going to make sure [the opponent] feels it,” Steele said.
Miami also ranked 111th, 114th and 113th in penalties the past three seasons in games involving FBS schools (formerly Division I). You want to see how undisciplined they played? That’s a glimpse into other, bigger problems, too.
“With this staff, they’re really taking ownership of our team and really holding us accountable,” offensive lineman Jalen Rivers said. “You saw last year, as you saw there were a lot of penalties, we were last in so many aspects of the game. We’re taking ownership of that and learning from it.”
Cristobal knows what makes champions. He’s seen what unmakes them, too. The Alabama loss in the Sugar Bowl was the beginning of Dennis Erickson’s descent. After Butch Davis rebuilt the program (Cristobal was a graduate assistant for the 2001 champions), Cristobal’s final season at Miami was the end of Larry Coker.
Every glimmer of a good game since then has brought the alluring question, “Is Miami back?” It’s never been back, never even close.
Cristobal’s back now. Saturday is the start of an era, and Miami fans are thinking big, even if Cristobal has other things on his mind.
Ask what players have stepped forward in practice or the progress of the offensive line entering Saturday and he’ll get a solid nuts-and-bolts answer.
Ask what he’ll be thinking in those first moments back on the Miami sideline and his mind doesn’t go there — “unfortunately for the nostalgia side of myself,” as he said.
