Cristobal in front of the media at the ACC Kickoff Thursday

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal spoke in front of the media for the Atlantic

Coastal Conference Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, Thursday.

Cristobal going into his first season as the head coach of his alma mater with his new staff is

trying to build a contender again out of the Hurricanes. With that, he has brought in a

demanding regiment to the program and it seems the players are embracing it.

“These players attacked it and approached it with a no nonsense mentality,” Cristobal said. “It

demands absolute every ounce of what they have on a daily basis”.

With this new regiment comes change to Coral Cables. For a program that hasn’t seen a bowl

game victory since 2016, discipline will be the main drive for the season.

“How you do anything is how you do everything,” Cristobal said. “It comes with discipline. I’ve

yet to see a good football team that didn’t have good discipline.”

For the action on the field, Cristobal went into deep depth about his O-line, especially junior

offensive lineman Zion Nelson. Describing his game and his hunger to learn more.

He’s an impressive guy, he really is,” Cristobal said. “He has a very strong appetite to get better.

He allows himself, he wants to be pushed, he’s always trying to find extra work”.

The change in the program also comes during the early years of NIL. While Cristobal believes

that, as a coach, he shouldn’t talk about the subject, he spoke on how NIL has affected the

university and the athletic program.

“Since it is a part of the change in college football, and it is a constitutional right, we have a

positive mindset towards that,” Cristobal said. “We’re also very fortunate to be in arguably the

best city in the world and one of the more prominent growing cities in the entire world. All that is

helpful with prominent alumni that could be supportive in a role where NIL is a real positive

thing”.

At the same time of realizing Miami’s advantages, he also sees the benefits of NIL as well for

the players.

“I know our guys have learned a lot and have benefited a lot from it,” Cristobal said. “From a

directional standpoint we can all understand it better to maximize it, but at the same time, to

make sure that the educational aspect is real. That we’re providing a better path for a better

future”.

With a majority of the day's questions being on how Cristobal is changing the Hurricanes identity

on and off the field, the media really went full focus on the new coach’s decision to drop the fan

favorite turnover chain. For Cristobal, he wants to focus more on getting better than jewelry.

“We just really focus on getting better as a program,” Cristobal said. “We’ve been working so

hard and paying attention to so many other things, that in my opinion, are much more critical to

winning football games and having success that it hasn’t really been a subject or a topic”.

With the retirement of the turnover chain, Cristobal is ushering a new era in Miami. One that is

focused on the program and players development. One of discipline and more flash on the field

than on the neck.

Cristobal and the Hurricanes look forward now to training camp and their week one matchup

against Bethune-Cookman on September 3.

Written by: Brandon Hernandez

Cristobal in front of the media at the ACC Kickoff Thursday