Mario Cristobal expresses frustration over playing on a Friday night

For the first and only time this season, Miami will play on a Friday night during Week 8. The Hurricanes will host ACC foe Louisville inside Hard Rock Stadium.

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal isn’t the biggest fan of Friday night kickoffs. Even though this isn’t the first non-Saturday game the ‘Canes have played in 2025, Cristobal would rather keep the tradition of playing each Saturday intact.

“In my opinion, it was meant, I’m not in any way, shape, or form has anything to do with this particular game. It’s been scheduled for a while, and there hasn’t been, we haven’t discussed anything about it that’s negative,” Cristobal said on Monday.

“If you look at big picture-wise, you always would love for Thursdays and Fridays to be high school. It belongs to them, and then Saturdays for college, and then Sundays for the NFL. But, I mean, there’s so much football to be played. I think there’s 50 straight days of football, so there’s enough to go around, and I’m all about it. I mean, play football every day, as long as humanly possible, and the world will be a better place.”

Miami opened the season with a 27-24 win over Notre Dame. That game was played on a Sunday, though the NFL had not yet begun their regular season at that point. In the four games since, Miami has played each of those matchups on Saturdays — just as they will do for the rest of the season after Week 8.

Meanwhile, this is the second time out of three total that the opposing Cardinals are playing on a Friday this season. They defeated James Madison 28-14 during Week 2. Louisville will finish its three-game Friday slate at home against Clemson on Nov. 14.

This offseason, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips spoke about how there are no sacred dates anymore. Phillips said that Friday nights are “a really nice spot for us to carve out.” They want to own Friday nights, which is why a record 12 games featuring ACC teams will be held right before the weekend. That includes the regular season finale between Georgia and Georgia Tech.

Still, with Louisville being a one-loss team and Miami undefeated, this is a matchup between two of the better teams the ACC has to offer. Kickoff between the Hurricanes and Cardinals is set for 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will carry the national broadcast.