Mario Cristobal reveals Miami told officials that SMU was mimicking snap cadence

On Saturday, Miami suffered its second loss in its last three games, falling 26-20 to SMU in overtime. After the loss, Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal addressed his team’s penalty issues, while claiming SMU’s defense had mimicked Miami’s snap cadence during the game.

“It’s the things that we work on daily. It’s the things that we’ve made a point of emphasis. But, obviously, we’re not getting a result, so we’re not coaching it, teaching it and executing it well enough,” Cristobal said. “The verbal stuff, we had some issues with their stems and movements.

“We tried to report when our cadence is being mimicked, but that didn’t get any traction. That happens in football, so no excuses. There’s not enough discipline as it relates to just holding our water and not jumping offsides.”

In the loss, Miami recorded 12 penalties for a total loss of 96 yards. In contrast, SMU committed just four penalties for 40 lost yards.

Miami’s penalty woes are nothing new. The Hurricanes have committed 64 penalties this season, costing them 507 total yards. Penalties plagued Miami last season as well.

In the 2024 campaign, the Hurricanes lost an average of 67.5 yards per game due to penalties, the second-most in the ACC. The loss on Saturday was only Miami’s second of the season, but it significantly damaged the team’s College Football Playoff hopes.

In Miami’s only other loss of the season, a 24-21 defeat against Louisville, the Hurricanes committed nine penalties for a combined loss of 67 yards. The Hurricanes’ penalty problems haven’t snuck up on them. In early October, when Miami was 5-0, Mario Cristobal discussed the possibility of his team’s lack of discipline eventually coming back to bite them.

“When we hurt ourselves, it affected our drives. It affected the outcome of drives as well,” Cristobal said. “We overcome them sometimes, but when you play really good teams, those things could be fatal. The benefit of being able to learn your lessons without learning it through consequence, is great.

“But, it has to be driven all the way through because, certainly, it’s not a stat line that we want to be on. And, it starts with myself and every single person in this building and it’s not acceptable. It’s not what we preach or teach, but we’ve got to make sure we get the results that we want.”

Now, Miami could narrowly miss the CFP once again. On Saturday, the Hurricanes will look to bounce when they square off against Syracuse at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.