No. 9 Miami Knows that Others Will Try and Copy Louisville's Model Against Them

The Miami Hurricanes will prepare for teams that know exactly what they need to do to win against the Canes.

Oct 17, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. (4) escapes coverage against Louisville Cardinals offensive lineman Trevonte Sylvester (70) during the third quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes are game planning for Stanford, but the thought of Louisville can't shake their mind just yet.

Defensively, the Cardinals stuffed the run game, and offensively, they made sure that the edge rushers of Miami could not get home to Miller Moss. It's a simple concept that many other coaches can prepare to do, and head coach Mario Cristobal knows it.

It's simple for the Hurricanes' opponents. Last week, they saw what happened when you try to have Carson Beck try to play Superman and knew it could work in their favor. Cristobal is prepared for others to copy the model as he prepares for the Cardinal.

"I think we've seen a lot of it before, in the couple previous years, and we've had better success," Cristobal said. "I think our failure to execute falls on all of us, right? We win as a team. We lose as a team. But the details of execution, of hat position, hand placement, angles, leverage, details, in protection, routes, play call, and all the things that lead to success or not being successful, and all that has to improve.

"The plan itself, we've seen all up, we've seen quarters cover three man, we've seen it all, and we have had success, and we can and will have success, and to do so, we have to prepare at the highest level and make sure we carry it over to game plan."

Cristobal also knows that, with each game that more players will know who is going to be out there making moves. This isn't the age of yesteryear; college football now is more professional than ever.

"It's the reality of football. I think we all have to understand that college football is working its way more and more to be more like professional football, where more teams have really good players," Cristobal said. "And anyone who doesn't believe that is in for a surprise.

"Everybody has really good players. And now 5,6, 7 weeks into the season, everybody has film, right? And everybody's talking to staff who have played against you, and you're talking to staff who have played against your opponents, and you're talking to former staff members.

"You're getting every nugget of information you possibly can to create an advantage. That's the reality of it. So if there's a hole, there's some be exposed; if there's something that you haven't quite corrected yet, you're going to see it. And if you ain't ready, and if you ain't getting better at it, it's going to hurt you."

However, the positive for the Hurricanes is that, even with the loss, they had a chance to tie or win the game. They are better than most people expect, even with all the turnovers and penalties that hindered them against the Cardinals.

"I think it's really important to point out that despite not being at our best and not playing to the standard at the end of the day, we still have the ball in hand at the 31-yard line, with two timeouts, with a chance to tie or win the game," Cristobal said. "So there is a there's a positive in the fact that our players will play hard all the way to the end, that we can dig our way out of stuff. We obviously did too much in a negative way to dig ourselves all the way out, and we need to improve upon those things to get the result."

Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for the Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at Twitter @Justice_News5.

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