Mario Cristobal Previews Miami Hurricanes Opening Week Matchup vs. Florida Gators | Miami Presser

[Music] U surrounding the game or whatnot but we've been working for a long long time in preparation not only for this game but for the season but uh certainly starts with the University of Florida this coming Saturday so great practice this morning questions please obviously you know not much motivation either for this match how do you make sure your guys going to that game sharp and ready for everything well you know it's it's always a great question right because I mean motivation in football should always take care of itself and when you play a rivalry game like this it tends to right crank up a couple of levels but I think it's important always recognize that games like this and games in general are won throughout the offseason they're won in your Monday Tuesday Wednesday practices um you know you almost you play the game before you play the game right and every block every tackle um certainly the bodies change right uh and there's always some surprises but every ounce of focus has to be on the Press preparation regarding the game things how the um without disclosing positions how how many jobs are you still looking at are you are you pretty well set on what's going to happen as far as first 22 or is there still some questions I would say that we certainly know who's going to be playing for us there's a couple you'll let out play out throughout the week in terms of who actually gets the first snap or whatnot but in terms of the roster the uh the guys that are actually going to be playing the guys that have uh legitimate roles defined and those that have some Reserve roles that is for the most part settled all right when you talk about the preparation for this game part of it obviously is going to be the atmosphere how do you prepare your team what do you say to your team what are the things obviously that's something until you get there it's really hard to present to them so how do you make sure that they're on the right level to what they're about to see Saturday afternoon sure well I mean the noise level itself you have to you know nowadays you got to simulate that in practice right and everything's got to work you know this year we had the uh player to coach communication devices but if you watch games this week and right you see a lot of guys squeezing their helmets trying to get um clear communication because that certainly it can't be counted on so what happens next everything else has to kick in your wristbands your signals your other methods of communication so that's been a part of our process which we've worked really really hard to make airtight in every regard and uh and then you have to simulate the noise itself you know where you really you know you know it's a loud place they do a great job with game day atmosphere um in terms of the opponent itself it's the most important part uh not only your service teams but also when you go good on good it has to continue to be an iron sharp sharpens iron mentality your good players have to challenge each other we got to see speed on speed all week long at the beginning the middle and the end of practice when you put all those things together we feel it's always been a good recipe for Preparation do you what do you know now you didn't know in January about this group about our group well it's we've sandwiched right the different um classes because the different class types right we have a our first S Class you know first full cycle class I should say they were freshman last year a significant amount of them played almost the most in the country and now they're sophomore so they have experience you know they might not be veterans but they have experience and then you have um a good contingent of guys that been here three four and five years that I've really worked hard and seen some ups and downs and have been just itching and grinding to be really really good in a win and then you have some portal classes particularly this last one of some really highly talented High Caliber High care Factor guys that can that can be impactful and that made essentially seamless transitions as seamless as you can make them you know especially as it relates to the timing of their arrival right some guys got here in January so at the end of the summer some at the end of spring so I think all in all what uh what I've learned is that um I guess I relearned that it's all about people right hardworking people that are good people that have high care factors they're going to find a way to make it work I'm um I'm beyond Wars excited to watch this group play ball Mario thinking back to last year it seems like one of the hinge points of the season was the end of the game against George Tech um you say you evaluate everything every all the time is there anything any changes he made to end of game management or uh you know process well the first one is follow process we had a process in place we just didn't follow it we've also added um um a time management coach to always just over harp on the situation again we had it in place we didn't follow process which is the most important part but we certainly cranked up the intensity and the organization behind it who is the time management coach we don't coach a lot has always kind of said about seen the Tren offensive line defensive line you yourself part of Alabama for a long time kind of know that just you know what are your thoughts on where your guys comparing trenches to other program around the country on the offensive side and defensive side well that's for people to decide at the end of the year you know I don't I think preseason awards are um I don't know how much meaning they have how much value they have you know you see a lot of nominations and this person's preseason this and that but you know football is not going to be one on paper it's going to be one on the field we've taken a lot of Pride and building a a group of trench players that are explosive that are strong that have good balance and body control that are tough minded and hardworking um and that really aren't very concerned about praise they just they want to get better they want to impact the game the best way they can they know their role they're really good leaders and they strive to be the very best in the country you know but they certainly don't Proclaim it or um you know it's they're more about the work and finding a way to get it done you coach in the SEC do you feel like SEC body types are a thing and what type of challenge does that pose I think program body types are a thing you know coached in very in different conferences and you know I've had a Outland Trophy winner and the Pack 12 had an Outland Trophy winner and Remington winner and the SEC and we've had both here at the University of Miami as well so I think it's more team related than it is conference related I think it's philosophical as well you know what kind of program do you want to have we've always been about the trenches we've just um added that other component about having some explosive skilled players around it now so we're inching closer and close to the type of roster we want to have said one player obviously doesn't make a difference always in the game but the quarterbacks in this game have experienced theyve been around for a while how much do you think that'll be a factor the experience for each guy in this matchup in this particular game well I mean enough uh not enough can be said about their quarterback I mean um I think statistically he he leads the country and accuracy when Under Pressure U certainly his touchdown and interception ratio lends you to to understand how accurate how decisive what kind of the caliber of decisions he makes and he's on point he's a very well- coached player he's a very smart player but he's also elusive he's got great feet great body uh control he's he's got great awareness in the pocket um and he's he's a winner you know and I think now going into his second year in the system you know certainly a guy that U that you have to control throughout the course of the game cam ward has been at different places and every place he's been he's just gotten better and better and better and sometimes he's been playing from ahead and sometimes from behind but he just plays and he plays at an extremely high level um and he's done that since the day he got here um there's no limitations as it relates to installing game plan as it relates to him sometimes you got to slow it down so that everybody gets it but I think a quarterback like him um he's so focused and concerned about the team doing well that he's willing to do whatever it takes to make the team do well so all in all a winner an alpha a leader so he'll he'll have a massive impact on us want to go back to the communic the new communication rule um cuz you're right every game hit watch Satur whether it was a neutral s Ireland or whatever quarterbacks were covering the covering the crazy is is this something coaches wanted is it I mean because it's something it's a new toy which is nice everybody likes a new toy but you got to figure it out kind of on the Fly and it seems like it could be more more help more harm than help almost we're going to find out you know we're going to find out in a hurry but I think a lot of people wanted it um and there was a very strong contingent of those that didn't want it that really rely heavily on their hand signals and Tempo and whatnot and they feel they get slowed down by that process and they got to get used to that cut off and what do you say right before the cut off that you can change after the cut off can you get a hold of a guy and now you got to keep track of green dots could you have two on the field it's a penalty so there's a lot of things that go with this uh in conjunction with this you also have that technology on the sideline the use of tablets which had never been used before so there's a lot and um as long as it's used the right way efficiently as long as the the information is presented with Clarity it's a bonus you know if it's unorganized and jumbled then you could create your own issues as well two minute time out which we can't say morning right for whatever whatever um to change strategy in any way or is it just you're thinking it does well you do and you don't because you know there's a 40 second play clock and you got to take that into account as you head towards that two-minute warning not to mention in the NFL I mean the clock still winds you know after the two-minute warning regardless of first down or playing it so there's uh certainly a lot of s similarities I think um I know we have I'm sure everybody has done a lot of studies and meeting and network opportunities with the NFL and some of their two-minute you know time management situations and people and mechanisms and whatnot and we feel strongly about the things we've worked on you know the situational football that we've certainly focused on and emphasized and and we certainly got a lot of work on it during camp and and looking forward to you know taking advantage of some opportunities to come our way back to the trenches and s j with portal one the three tackles that you Sim and CJ Marley just the value that they can bring with their experience and being able to help you guys help you guys on the on the front absolutely it's such a hard position to develop and you know it's probably one of the biggest areas of need that we had here at Miami uh for for a bit now and when guys have experience when they're seasoned they understand and they feel those double teams the bump blocks the reach blocks the back blocks all that stuff they're able to you know read splits and stances and understand backfield sets they communicate better they understand the urgency of completing an assignment as it relates to just Gap responsibilities and whatnot so those guys are they're hard workers they're really tough which we love and they all have high Motors and they're really competitive so they've been great mentors for the young guys you certainly see our young guys improving because of the type of leadership these guys are displaying Mario how do you feel about the team's Health coming out of camp and were there any significant injuries in Camp I feel good we all feel good about our health in Camp I don't know if we had a significant injury we certainly wouldn't share it at this time um and I wouldn't I don't mean any um disrespect out of that but uh I can honestly say that we feel very good about our health coming out of Camp you talked about classes kind of sandwiching together all come together culture wise do you think the program is where it needs to be to be successful program around the country it's getting there you know and it's getting there because I think the caliber of human being the caliber of competitor and Care Factor You Know It uh a lot of it starts and ends with what you are when you're away from the building and when you when you start cranking out successive highest GPA in team history and you're you know we've always done really well with community service but uh to again just knock those numbers out and then just see time invested um with the younger players time invested with each other just finding ways to um improve relationships and connection you know um the best thing in the world is getting you know for football I believe is getting a lot of like-minded people together because when they're like-minded and they're they're high achieving they're they're strong Alpha personality types they're going to compete they're going to try to knock each other out in practice but they're going to want to get better and uh we've gotten better in that regard are we all the way there I mean that's to be determined on the field do we feel good about it absolutely I think coaches get some form of this question before three years you're going to know more about fan Ball State and whoever the fourth game is because you have how how do coaches not go crazy about all the other week one because how do they not go crazy or or to what level of crazy do they actually get to probably better right um you know if you work hard enough um if you dig deep enough into preparation and you make sure that you are doing that and impacting the people around you as you prepare and you're airtight in terms of your rules and your processes that has to be good enough there the rest right you know is game day making it happen and biggest thing is when you get into a game like this you've done all the work right you've had all these practices you've installed the plays you feel great about and whatnot but you want to make sure that while all that's being done that there's trust and confidence in the players and in each other El eliminate anxiety right anxiety's maybe the biggest performance killer there is out there and when you prepare the right way you know we've had some great speak we've had some great alumni stop by and they talk about it all the time and you got to be able to put your head at night with confidence because you did the work not because you talk yourself into feeling good because of the work that said how much are you a believer in tone setting the first game obviously whether you play a lesser opponent or go on the road to Florida you want to win that game but how much do you believe in the setting the tone for the season how important a game like this is I think you set the tone week to week I've always believed that and I say that because I'm I want to let's not let's put this game aside for one second you go to any year and you go out and you play a great game um and you do well but the next week you don't well that first game is quickly forgotten you're back to square one so it's square one every single week you know the one and0 mentality has permeated college football really all sports because everyone is really understanding more and more The Importance of Being where your feet are right now don't allow yourself to drift you know and and just get aead ahead of yourself because typically when you do you're just not seeing all the the bumps in the road in front of you so we stay very um grounded in our approach to our opponent all I want to ask you about Ruben the when a kid comes in has a lot of success quickly you can go one of two ways either he says I'm good and stays there or he looks in the mirror and says this is where I can get to how has he gotten better since the end of the last season in your well I think I'd like to answer that question by saying that it relates to our program's progress the best thing we could do for Ruben Bane is bring guys like Francis Mino and bring in marel Bell you know and Tommy Kinsler excuse me and bringing guys that will challenge him on a daily basis at the line of scrimmage you know getting AEM mzor healthy bringing Elijah Alon in right Tyler Baron in bringing Armando blun in bringing guys that are going to just not allow you to get comfortable you know because again that's great accomplishment and that was last year year we owe it to Ruben Bane to absolutely push him to the edge to make sure he maximizes his great potential and uh he doesn't shy away from that competition he U he's taken a great step forward in terms of leadership so we expect him to take another step forward as well in his performance you guys face the two other other big three programs in the state this year how much if you were to win both of those games is that make an impression on recruiting around Florida you know playing those bit high profile teams in the state and entally beating both of them showing the air in a better spot from them I'll Focus on Florida what you about Coach Nate here you coached with him at Alabama for a few years your relationship and just your thoughts on him as a coach hard worker really good person you know we uh certainly was a pretty interesting collection of coaches back there and we all took a a ton of pride in our work and working for Coach Sabin and had a lot of success together but certainly um you know have tremendous amount of respect for him um great family man as well so certainly a guy that have a lot of respect for anyse all right thank you thank you guys thank you than [Music] oh