It was late Saturday afternoon on April 30, 2022. Mario Cristobal was on a tarmac, on his way from Somewhere, America to Somewhere Else, America, and he asked the pilot of the private jet he was using for a Miami recruiting trip to pause his takeoff routine. Something important was happening, and he needed to be on the ground to witness it: the Hurricanes were about to have a player drafted. A player. The program that set the modern-day standard for accumulating elite talent -- 35 players drafted from 2001-04, 19 of them first-rounders -- had to wait until just before closing time until offensive lineman Jonathan Ford went off the board at Pick No. 234. At least one Hurricane has been taken in every NFL Draft since 1975, but that streak came thisclose to ending in 2022.
So, when Cristobal is asked, as he was at ACC media days in Charlotte on Tuesday, about how Miami can shake its, as one reporter put it, "can't-get-right-itis" he bristles at the assumption that Miami has always had the talent. "I remember watching film when we got here thinking, 'We've got a lot of work to do.'"
"I chose to leave my place on the West Coast to come back and do Miami the way Miami should be done, and that's what we've been doing," Miami said. "It's evident in the progression of our football team, it's evident in the talent acquisition and development of those players."
That point is undeniable. Three years in, Miami has followed the standard progression of "Lose big, lose close, win close, win big." In a 5-7 debut season of 2022, the Hurricanes dropped five games by 14 points or more -- including a 24-point setback to Duke, a 42-point humbling to Florida State, a 26-point blowout to Pitt and, perhaps worst of all, a 14-point loss to Middle Tennessee. "Those were some lopsided games," Cristobal said. "It was tough." In 2023, Miami went 7-6, with no defeat by more than 14 and four within one score. Last season, Miami jumped to 10-3, none of its three losses by more than five points. Miami easily could have gone 12-0 in the regular season and, at worst, made the College Football Playoff.
But they didn't, and that's part of the problem. Quarterbacked by the No. 1 pick in the draft, Miami led the nation in scoring by 2.6 points per game (the largest margin since 2020), didn't play a single team that finished in the AP Top 25 in the entire regular season, and didn't even qualify for the ACC Championship. "The bottom line is we didn't get it done," Cristobal said.
Part of the problem was the defense, which finished the year a respectable 44th nationally in yards per play, but only held Florida State and Wake Forest (who went a cumulative 6-18 last season) below 5.78 ypp over their final nine contests. After removing the first four games, Miami would have ranked 84th in yards per play and 111th in scoring, with six of nine foes putting up at least 31 points.
"After Week 4 last year, we took a downturn defensively. We had some injuries that led to some schematic changes that weren't the best for our football program, so a change had to be made. (Corey Heatherman) is an elite teacher and human being, and a guy that does really well at what we need our defense to do and to be. His use of personnel, his ability to adapt, his track record, particularly at Minnesota, was enough evidence for us to feel comfortable in bringing him in, and he hasn't disappointed," Cristobal said.
In addition to hiring Corey Heatherman away from Minnesota to coordinate the defense and coach linebackers, Cristobal hired Zac Etheridge from Houston to lead the secondary, plucked Will Harris from Florida to coach the safeties, and pulled Damione Lewis from Colorado to coach the defensive tackles. D-line coach Jason Taylor is the only returning defensive assistant.
Cristobal also pointed out that the bottom falling out of last year's defense wasn't entirely the defense's fault. Miami turned the ball over in eight of their final nine games, coughing up multiple giveaways four times.
But Miami also struggled for reasons that have effected every Cristobal team throughout the entire second act of his coaching career. Cristobal is 4-11 after Nov. 1 at Miami, and his Hurricanes teams have shown the same penchant for clunkers that his Oregon teams did. In 2024, Miami fell to unranked Georgia Tech while undefeated and ranked No. 4 in the country, then lost to unranked Syracuse while ranked No. 6 two weeks later. Cristobal's final Oregon team dropped a game to unranked Stanford while ranked No. 3, then climbed back to No. 3 seven weeks later and lost 38-7 to No. 23 Utah. 2019 Oregon, to date the best team Cristobal has ever coached, won the Pac-12 and the Rose Bowl but missed the CFP because they lost to unranked Arizona State.
"Without a doubt, finishing is a mentality. Finishing is a work ethic that comes with the offseason. We've always invested a ton of effort in those areas, and we've invested more this offseason and it will be a big part of training camp as well," Cristobal said.
One way to avoid stop to teams you shouldn't and to avoid late-season slides is to simply acquire more good players, and Miami has done that. After coming a hair's breath of an NFL Draft shutout in 2022, Miami's draftee numbers have grown to three, to four, and then to seven this past April. The bulk of this year's roster will be filled with recruiting classes ranked eighth and sixth, and we all know the portal has been kind to the Canes. No other Power 4 program has more talent within an hour's drive than Miami. After losing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, the player everyone thought would go No. 1 at this time last year, Carson Beck, now takes over at quarterback. The schedule is the right mix of challenging but forgiving: Notre Dame and Florida come to Miami in non-conference, and the Canes avoid Clemson in ACC play.
The pieces are in place. In Year 4, this should be the "Win big" season, per the standard progression. "There's a ton of energy and momentum around the program right now," Cristobal says.
Miami has come a long way from April 30. In fact, the best way to summarize how far the program has traveled between then and now is this: Mario Cristobal the Recruiter, the Developer, and the Program Builder has done such a good job, the last remaining question around the Hurricanes is Mario Cristobal the Head Coach.