Mario Cristobal on rebounding from Texas A&M game: 'There is no choice'

Mario Cristobal’s team came up just short in their Top-25 matchup in College Station on Saturday night. Miami didn’t convert on fourth down in the closing seconds in the fourth quarter and it sealed the Hurricane’s fate in the 17-9 loss to Texas A&M. Now, Cristobal says it’s on them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Cristobal ended his postgame press conference by talking about bouncing back. He said that he and his Miami players don’t have a choice but to improve and get better with the expectations that are upon them in Coral Gables.

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“There’s no choice (to rebound or not.) It’s really not a choice,” said Cristobal. “We’ve worked very hard to become a competitive football team and have an opportunity to punch through on a big stage like this. And we came up short. There’s no sugarcoating that and I’m not going to sugarcoat that.”

Miami was stifled in Aggieland after averaging 50 points per game over their first two wins. The offense was held scoreless even with them earning 11 more first downs than A&M. The field goal unit also left points out on the field with two missed kicks. With the storyline focusing on the Aggie’s offense struggles over the last week, Miami finishing with fewer points than Texas A&M on Saturday was a bad look.

No one’s going to make any excuses for the Hurricanes for the loss. They went on the road in the SEC against a top-ranked team and missed their chance. Mario Cristobal now wants to get back to work and improve on both their strengths and weaknesses.

“We have to go and get better and eliminate issues that hurt us in this game. And also things that we do well to get better at them and go forward,” Cristobal said. “No one else is gonna pick us up. We’ve got to do it ourselves.”

This was a missed opportunity for Miami. Winning road games against the SEC can be a massive boost, especially for a team like the Hurricanes who wants to compete both in the ACC and nationally. With it behind them, though, they’ll have to regroup. Everything Miami wants is still attainable with a game against MTSU between them and ACC play.