After putting up 70 points in the season-opening win, one would think that Head Coach Mario Cristobal would be pleased with his team going into game two.
After Wednesday’s zoom presser with the media, that certainly was not the feeling most came away with.
“We need to have better practice habits,” Cristobal said. “We need to run to the ball better…It’s a very different group than I’m used to. That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that but you have to keep forging forward and use a blueprint that will suit the test of time and that involves the guys upfront that continue to lead the charge.”
Miami is still having issues when it comes to tackling. Miami ranks 80th compared to the other 130 teams when it comes to putting players on the ground according to Pro Football Focus. Bethune gained 342 total yards against Miami's defense Saturday. For Coach Cristobal, the defense is still a work in progress.
“We need to be a better tackling team,” Cristobal said. “We made so much progress in the summer, in the springtime and fall camp, and in our scrimmages, and then it showed up in spurts on Saturday. When I mean tackling I’m talking about not only getting guys on the ground but knockback tackling as opposed to absorbing. That comes with practicing in a tough manner. When I say tough, in a smart manner. Not going to the ground. Making sure you accelerate through contact when you are on your feet. That’s got to show up. Communication gots to show up. Technique in the secondary gots to show up.”
Offensive Coordinator Josh Gattis mentioned that there was a lot of meat left on the bone in his pre-game presser on Monday. Cristobal reiterated that notion Wednesday.
“We left some big explosive plays on the table by not finishing downfield upfront and on the perimeter and it starts and ends with the way you practice and conditioning. As you can tell I want and need more out of the way we practice. We’re making progress but it’s not enough. So we are going to demand more of ourselves and we are going to teach. We are going to keep coaching and teaching and learning, all of us together as a program. Keep elevating the things that we talked about because you got to practice it. You could sit here and preach it until you are blue in the face and show eighteen different clips of what it should look like, but until you do it again and again and again until you can’t get it wrong, it doesn’t show up. Hopefully, we fit that number and hopefully, it will show up on Saturday better.”
The players are also feeling the urgency from the coaching staff. Backup quarterback Jake Garcia is feeling the intensity of practice.
“There’s definitely been an up in intensity and just an attention to detail,” Garcia said.
Jalen Rivers was the recipient of the ACC offensive lineman of the week award but Justice Oluwaseun was actually the highest-rated guard according to Pro Football Focus while Rivers was the 13th guard listed. DJ Scaife was ranked fifth among tackles while John Campbell made the list at 37th. Rivers agrees that Miami needs to practice better in order to perform at a high level on game day.
“Our practices are supposed to be hard because when practices are hard the game makes it even easier,” Rivers said. “So I would say going into practice it’s kind of tough and we are in Miami heat we got to get used to that as well and that will be our advantage against these other teams. The intensity is very high as well.”
