OPINION: Not too many people understand what is going on at Miami, but the time has come to prove it

One thing that is certain as the opening of college football training camps arrive and pundits start spewing their game is that not a ton of people understand what is going on at Miami and the job Mario Cristobal is doing. There is a great disparity in opinions on the Hurricanes.

Kudos to ESPN analyst Greg McElroy who recently took a hard look at the ACC and made an aggressive prediction.

“I think they are the best roster in the ACC,” McElroy said of the Hurricanes. “Those that have pointed to [head coach] Mario [Cristobal]’s shortcomings, the process is working.

“They’ve done a really good job of jump-starting the roster with some guys that have been impactful in the portal. They’ve also supplemented that portal with great high school recruiting.”

Obviously, some have noticed that Miami picked up Quarterback Cam Ward and expect him to improve on his stats last year at Washington State (323-of-485, a 66.6 percent completion-rate, for 3,735 yards, 25 passing touchdowns, eight rushing touchdowns and seven interceptions). McElroy even called Miami’s offensive line one of the best in the country.

But Cristobal keeps taking shots across the bow because of last year’s colossal no-knee error that led to the loss at home against Georgia Tech. It has reached such proportions that when BetOnline put out Vegas odds on who will be the first coach fired in 2024 that Cristobal was third on the list at +600 behind Florida’s Billy Napier and Arkansas’ Sam Pittman.

We probably don’t have to make it clear to anyone that follows the Canes that there is zero chance Cristobal gets fired this season. Zero. Memo to BetOnline. Make it +100000000000. Then add a few more zeros.

For starters, the Miami roster has been massively upgraded with 41 new additions which has created an excitement level not seen in a very long time in Coral Gables. But Cristobal is also just midway through year three of a 10-year contract with the mission of turning around Miami and restoring the program’s championship pedigree.

The Canes have been recruiting at a very high-level and slaying the transfer portal at the same time. The Miami NIL program inspired by Cristobal is among the best in the country.

Miami, the University itself, has invested the house on its football program because it finally realized that it was even more high profile than the U Health hospital system that was driving massive revenues to the University.

So while there is no argument that donors paying a lot of the freight are antsy to finally see a return on all the investment, there is absolutely nobody that has anything to do with power at Miami that has suggested Cristobal is on any kind of hot seat. It is just flat not true. And this is certainly not a guy you need to motivate with that kind of hammer or mindless chatter.

If you know anybody thinking about taking those +600 odds, tell them to keep their money in their wallet.

Napier is a good bet at +400, especially if the Gators lose to Miami. Pittman and many SEC coaches are caught in no-win situations they probably knew existed when they took those jobs. Put Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea (+800) in that category. Even Ohio State’s Ryan Day made the list because beating Michigan has become a problem in Columbus. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney also was included at +2500.

As a reference point, here is the complete list of odds on the first head coach to be fired in 2024, courtesy of BetOnline.

+400 – Billy Napier, Florida; +500 – Sam Pittman, Arkansas; +600 – Mario Cristobal, Miami; +700 – Dave Aranda, Baylor; +800 – Clark Lea, Vanderbilt; +1000 – Kalani Sitake, BYU; +1200 – Ryan Day, Ohio State; +1200 – Justin Wilcox, California; +1200 – Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh; +1400 – Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati; +1400 – Neal Brown, West Virginia; +1600 – Shane Beamer, South Carolina; +1600 – Tony Elliott, Virginia; +1600 – Mike Locksley, Maryland; +2500 – Dabo Swinney, Clemson; +2500 – Lincoln Riley, USC; +3300 – Brent Venables, Oklahoma; +5000 – Deion Sanders, Colorado.

OK, now back to the reality in Miami.

Training camp will begin Wednesday and yeah it will be time to put up results. We have seen a bit of a difference in the chatter of recent weeks as the off-season workouts cranked up and everyone began to see how the pieces might come together. Miami is talking about being good again and is really believing it. It sees what can be.

Cristobal seems OK with all of the expectations that are coming with the upgrade in personnel and the feel good that has come with it. You can tell he feels strongly about the stage of development of his program.

In recent years, Cristobal held back from allowing players to speak freely about the team and the  program. Now the roster has been enhanced and there is competition at most positions. Cam Ward has had a transformational impact on and off the field.

This has placed a lot of focus on the strength of Miami’s NIL efforts and the money players are making to wear a Miami uniform. But that is one subject Cristobal would like to see buttoned away now that it is time to play real football.

“I know this,” Cristobal said. “If you don’t play well, no one knows your name, your image stinks, no one likes you.”

So the bottom line of winning takes over.

“Now the talent has to be put to good use,” Cristobal said. “It has to happen in camp, in practice and of course in the games.

“We are on track to build a championship football program. There’s a starting point for everything. The starting point at Miami was making sure that we enhanced the caliber of talent in the locker room, that we increased the level and capabilities of the coaching staff, and that we blended in the strongest and most unbreakable culture that we can. We’ve been at it for two years, so systems are growing, players are developing, people are there for the right reasons. Growth and development, hard work and good people is a very strong combination.”

Cristobal has respect for the competition Miami will face even as people look down at the Hurricane degree of difficulty this season. He sees ACC teams with decent quarterbacks as usual, which has traditionally had the expected impact on the degree of difficulty of the competition.

He will try to make sure that this is a one week at a time operation and that Miami doesn’t get distracted by the demons that can overtake a locker room when depth charts and playing time come into play, especially on a team with a lot of guys who transferred here for the stage to improve their NFL Draft status.

Managing all that at every level will fall on his staff.  But Cristobal is comfortable with the starting point and what he has seen through spring practice and off-season workouts.

“These guys run to the work. They run to the fight,” Cristobal said. “They’re awesome to be around. It’s awesome to sit back and watch them work. It lets you go home and feel good knowing that no matter what, these guys are ready and willing to show up. They’re team-goal oriented. They’re driven to win.”

Yes, it is true that not too many people understand what is going on at Miami. It is real. But the time has come to prove it because otherwise it doesn’t really matter all that much.

“I don’t think there’s anything outside that could ever match our internal expectations,” Cristobal said. “It’s never going to be that way. Greatness is being the absolute best you can be all the time. It’s that way of life.”

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