Mario Cristobal Prepares No. 7 Miami for 'NFL Influence' on the West Coast
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Watching a team that already has film on them makes scouting them that much harder when there is nothing else to go off of.
The Miami Hurricanes start their week preparing for Stanford (1-0) and prepare for the Friday night matchup against the new ACC foe.
Moreover, head coach Mario Cristobal prepares his team for the West Coast and an NFL style of play that he has transformed Miami into. The Cardinal are bigger and faster compared to last season, a point Cristobal noted.
"Certainly, of course, the excitement is awesome as we prepare for game one and going out to play Stanford," Cristobal said during his Monday presser. "We had a chance to watch them, of course, this past weekend. Really impressive outing by them, playing a really good Hawaii team and really impressive in the manner that they in such a short period of time they put together and developed some really good football players and implemented what they wanted to schematically, which you see a lot of their NFL influence in the schemes that they run.
"Influences, of course, from their head coach and being at Washington and their coordinators being with the Bills and some other teams or whatnot, and the Seattle Seahawks, but what you saw was a team that was really playing with a lot of energy, playing with really a lot of physicality, toughness, finishing plays, resilience, and certainly closing out the game in impressive fashion."
After the trip to the National Championship game, Miami looks and feels different in their appreciation and approach to the game.
The Cardinal continues to show itself as a challenge for the Canes, one Cristobal is prepared for.
"A team that has, I think, believe 19 of their 22 starters are either juniors or seniors, and they came out and did a tremendous job," Cristobal said. "I mean, offensively, they piled up 500 yards. Their quarterbacks got to overcome a lot from a life standpoint as well as a football standpoint, and goes down and completes, I believe, 22 of 34 passes for about 300 yards, six red zone trips, 44 percent on third down. Really impressive stuff.
"And their defense, I believe, overall by the end of the game, they had shut these guys down or held Hawaii to seven, three and outs, and I believe maybe 40 yards rushing total.
"Special teams played a big factor too. Blocked punt for them, big return at the end of the game to set them up for their game-winning drive before they close it out with the strip sack fumble and the return for a touchdown. So, a lot of film, a lot of film, and a lot of stuff that a lot of research we did in the summer that kind of adds up, comes together. They present a lot of challenges offensively, varied tempos, multiple personnel groupings, sugar huddles, speed breaks, regular tempo, freeze cadence, all that stuff.
"Defensively, a phenomenal third down, very challenging third down package with overload rushes, nickel dime personnel, the heavy guys when they're trying to play big as well."
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.
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