Miami football fans painstakingly remember the loss to Georgia Tech last season where head coach Mario Cristobal and the rest of the staff managed the time in the worst possible way where all they needed was a knee to win the game. This time around, there will be a time management coach as revealed by Cristobal Monday.

The Hurricanes had the game in the bag against the Yellow Jackets where they were up 20-17 where they did a good job of running the football to stall the opponents, but with just over 30 seconds left, Miami decided to keep running it. It would result in a fumble recovered by Georgia Tech leading to their game-winning touchdown in a moment where Cristobal said that they had “a process in place,” but “didn't follow it” according to Geo Milian.

“We had a process in place,” Cristobal said. “We just didn’t follow it, we've also added a time management coach to always just over harp on the situation, we didn’t follow the process, which is the most important part, but we certainly cranked up the intensity and the organization behind it.”

Mario Cristobal reflects on stint with Miami football

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal looks on during the first half against the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

There is no doubt that there was tons of expectations with the Hurricanes when Cristobal was hired back in 2022, but the results have been underwhelming. This was something that was admitted by Cristobal as he reflects on his time so far with the Miami football team and what he wants to accomplish with them according to Jordan McPherson of The Sun Sentinel.

“You look in the mirror, you look at your own faults, you look at the ways you can make your team better and you attack it,” Cristobal said. “Luckily, for me, I was raised by some bad-ass parents. … They were always like, ‘Hey man, own up, man up. Don’t focus on anything except going forward’ and remind yourself why you came to Miami. You came to Miami to end the 15, 20 years of — to get Miami to what it needs to be doing.”

Mario Cristobal on how Miami football working with new communication

Besides time management, Cristobal talks the use of the new coach to player helmet communication where as described by the Sun Sentinel “only one player for each team is allowed to be in communication with coaches while on the field, that player will be designated with a green dot on his helmet.”

“There’s a lot of things that go with this,” Cristobal said. “As long as it’s used the right way and efficiently, as long as the information is presented with clarity, it’s a bonus. If it’s unorganized and jumbled, then you can create your own issues as well.”

“The noise level itself, nowadays you’ve got to simulate that in practice,” Cristobal said. “Everything’s got to work. … If you watched games this weekend, you saw a lot of guys squeezing their helmets trying to get clear communication. So what happens next [if the helmet communication doesn’t work]? Everything else has to kick in — your wristbands or signals, your other methods of communication. That’s been part of our process, which we worked really, really hard to make airtight in every regard.”

At any rate, the Hurricanes look to bounce back after going 7-6, 3-5 in conference play last season as they open the season No. 19 in the rankings against an in-state rival against the Florida Gators.