What frustrated Cristobal the most from Saturday’s game?

“It’s never easy, but you know what, it’s always our duty and obligation to wake up and go right back to work. That’s what we do. That’s why we’re here. Most frustrating thing was not stopping the run. It was counter. We didn’t hold up inside like we thought we could. We gave up some big plays and we generated some good offensive momentum in the first drive, and after that we didn’t do very well. We didn’t coach well enough, we didn’t play well enough.”

On if there was any second-guessing to play Tyler Van Dyke

“He was healthy. We wouldn’t of put him in there if he wasn’t. He started off really well. What got him was that one ball that he threw away. He just threw it away at an angle that really caused him some pain. So after that, it wasn’t good for him to go back in. We kept him out. Again, we wouldn’t have put him in there unless he was cleared medically and he felt good to go, and he wanted to go.”

On the quarterback situation and who will play this Saturday

“It hasn’t been easy. It’s been tough trying to figure that part out and we got to figure that part out this week. Obviously, Jacurri had his moments. Jake has had his moments, but it didn’t go well for him Saturday, but he’s a good player and a good quarterback. And Tyler’s on the mend. Tyler’s always been number one and he would be number one if he’s healthy, we just don’t know where’s he going to be at.”

On Guard Jalen Rivers injury status

“Yeah, it’s a shame because he’s been playing really really good football. Obviously, we need the offensive line to be healthy. He'd be a third starter, fourth starter we would lose this year if he’s not healthy enough to go. Fingers crossed as he gets evaluated again this morning and see where he’s at.”

On what the issues are with this team

“When you lose you just got to own it. As it relates to talent and stuff like that you got to assess that in the offseason, because if you don’t and you try to pick at this and that, it sounds like you’re picking on people and just making excuses, and you don’t go that route.

We’ve been here ten months. We’ve been working our tails off with everything we got and a lot of guys have been pouring it in to have into it. Some have been decent moments and some haven’t been so good, so the bottom line is if we’re not able to run certain schemes that we’re used to, we got to keep adjusting and finding tweaks and ways to get things done with the guys that are healthy, with the guys that are available, and the talent that we have.”

On whether younger players will continue to get snaps

“You got to play guys that can play, and since we’ve had a fair amount of injuries, everybody has this time of year, is you want to decrease the load wherever you can for certain guys. If guys are playing double duty and having to go on two or three of the core special teams units, you still have to find ways to get your young guys experience, that have earned it and that shows that they have a good future, that they are putting time into it. And you have to take a little bit off of the guys that are taking an extensive amount of reps.”

On Offensive Coordinator Josh Gattis and the lack of touchdowns scored

“Well, you say the truth you know. Every effort is being made to do that. The biggest thing Joe, you’re football guy you know, watch film. We’ve been trying everything humanly possible. From open sets, empty sets, condensed sets, play-action, RPOs, the running game, using the quarterback to run when he can run. It’s been tough sledding for a couple weeks. Guys that have been really good coaches for a long time didn’t suddenly forget how to coach football. It doesn’t work that way. You got to work with what you got. You got to go forward with it and that’s the reality of it.”

On rebounding from the tough loss(es)

“For me, it’s never hard. I wake up and live and die by this stuff. I live and die by this university. The whole purpose has been recruiting people that are like-minded. That are into that. If people are easily broken or deterred by diversity Joe, this ain’t for them. One of the big things in coming this way, think about it, we’ve been pretty successful at the places we’ve been at, at the highest level. And having to build it from even worse situations, is that the whole time you had to bring in the right people and have to keep grooming the right people from within. And you know what this is? That requires some painful steps and we’re going through them and it is what it is. You got to keep grinding and got to keep making sure that you’re working your way and finding ways to get the right people, to do the right things, at the right time.”

On missed tackles

“Well, tackling is technique, right, and toughness and physicality? Some guys showed up really really well and other guys just did not. I’m very familiar with that running back. That’s one of our running backs at Oregon, to put in perspective the caliber of teams we’re used to building. So tackling and physicality is a mentality, and some guys were gaining a lot of progress to it, and other guys still have a ways to go. So again, keep generating whatever you can from a developmental standpoint and keep recruiting like a maniac.”

On the his confidence of the recruiting class staying together

“Absolutely, we’ve been honest from the beginning. From the beginning Joe, it’s clear as the day is long. We left very successful programs knowing we had to come here and go to work, and that tough work was going to be the deal early on. We all knew it. No one flinched. No one hesitated. That’s what comes with it. That’s the reality of it. There’s no shying away from reality, and I think our guys that we’re recruiting are very much about building. About being guys that go in and want to work. No fluff. No nonsense. No BS, but building.”

On the effort

“I think a lot of guys are trying to play hard. I think the big plays that were made against us were simple mistakes. Not forcing a release and jamming somebody, and not trusting the eyes and technique on another particular play, and not blocking long enough or correctly on another player or hat leverage, hat position. Things that are going to develop and get better. Physicality-wise was to me, I was disappointed, quite frankly. That’s a part when you run counter, counter is a mentality and they did a better job running counter than what we did stopping it. We got to do a better job coaching it. Like I tell the players all the time, you own it all together. You didn’t coach well enough. You didn’t play well enough and it comes together. Physicality has to be a state of mind and we all have to own that. It’s not good enough.”

On blocking out the noise

“In terms of noise, whether things are going great in this season or not, during the season, everything is pretty, it’s out for me. The players, we always preach that, we always try to teach that, but it’s a noisy world. It’s athletics man, there’s a lot of passion surrounding it. So it’s what you sign up for. You got to deal with it. In terms of myself, yeah I don’t, besides something for recruiting or birthdays I don’t really mess much with social media. We educate our players on it all the time knowing that. Lets call it what it is. If you are really are a competitor, and you train at five in the morning, and you’re up late hours, and you are doing all kinds of stuff, and everyone’s sleeping or not up yet, whatever it is, no one else should factor into your headspace than those that are working with you. If they can understand that concept, they’ll understand that adversity is something that builds you or breaks you. We want to recruit guys and be around people that it builds up and that’s what it’s all about.”

On the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium for the Florida State game

“That’s the part that really as a Miami Hurricane, as an alum, that’s the part, one of the parts that really hits you, right between the eyes. You want to do well for everybody. That’s why we’re here. We’ve been watching it from afar for a long, long time. I know everything that needs to be done, and all things that we have to work on and unfortunately, it takes time. And you want to do well for everybody. For the community for the fans, for the university, we’re not there yet. Are we going to get there? Absolutely, 100 percent undoubtedly, and we are going to that at full force with unbelievable players and an unbelievable program. Right now, you know what, it’s tough sledding, we got to eat it, we got to own up and be tough. If you ain’t tough? You know what, well tough crap, it ain’t for you.

What I’m thinking? I’m pissed off. That’s what I’m thinking. I’m upset, you know. I’ve been fortunate enough to be around some good teams for a long time and played on some good teams and built some good teams, and now we got to build this one, and early on it’s tough ass sledding and I hate every bit of a loss that comes with it, but I also get up more enthused as ever to go to work. And that’s where we’re at. It’s that simple and it’s that truthful brother. There ain’t no other fluff to it.”

Talk with Miami fans on Canes Talk

• Subscribe to the Storm Tracker Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Spotify

• Subscribe to the Canes County YouTube Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @Canes_County, @BenjaminRivals, @TheCribSouthFLA, @RivalsGeo, @AnthonyYero1, and @MichaelYero

• Follow us on Instagram: @Canes.County