Mario Cristobal: Miami’s NIL spending has been ‘aggressive in the right kind of way’

The very first question put to Miami coach Mario Cristobal during his stint at the microphone at ACC Media Days was about NIL and how the Hurricanes have approached it. While just about everyone has used the NCAA transfer portal in conjunction with NIL, few have used it in quite as flashy a manner as the ‘Canes.

Last year, the program snagged eventual No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick Cam Ward from Washington State. This year?

The program is hoping Georgia transfer Carson Beck can recover his form from two years ago and emerge as a similar type talent as Ward. He’s certainly got the ability.

So Mario Cristobal was blunt when asked about NIL. He likes where his program is at.

“Well we’ve always been very well established,” Cristobal said. “We’ve always been compliant and we’ve been aggressive in the right kind of way and use it in a formative fashion that benefits our program and our players.”

The goal? To supplement a roster already made strong by recruiting. Fill in a few key holes and Miami is a playoff contender.

Mario Cristobal didn’t seem ready to expand on the program’s approach with NIL much beyond that. No talk of individual deals or anything. That’s certainly fair enough.

“In terms of where they are and the details surrounding that, that’s maybe a question for some other time,” Cristobal said. “But you couldn’t find a more professionally run organization than our collective.”

The evidence that it’s working for Miami is fairly strong. Cristobal pointed out that the year he arrived, the Hurricanes had just one NFL Draft pick, a seventh-rounder at that.

Since then, the Hurricanes have produced draft classes of three, four and seven members, in order. The talent is clearly getting better, with NIL and the transfer portal supplementing Mario Cristobal’s efforts.

“To me, Miami did not have the talent and Miami did not recruit to the level that Miami is supposed to recruit,” Cristobal said. “Now you fast forward three years later, Miami is coming off a 10-win season. Now Miami is sixth in the country in players drafted with double digit combine invites, with double digit wins, and with the No. 1 pick overall.

“The steady progress and trajectory is a product of a lot of people, players, coaches, staff members working really hard to get Miami to where it needs to be, and one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reason, why I chose to leave my place on the West Coast to come back and do Miami the way Miami should be done. That’s what we’ve been doing.”