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Nick Saban, Mario Cristobal trade jabs over Miami play-calling in Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State

On3 imageby: Dan Morrison01/01/26dan_morrison96

It was a great New Year’s Eve for Mario Cristobal. His Miami Hurricanes took down Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl to move on to the semifinal of the College Football Playoff.

Of course, there’s always room for coaching points. Cristobal himself would admit that it wasn’t quite a perfect game, and the Hurricanes can keep getting better. So, while he was on College GameDay on New Year’s Day, legendary head coach Nick Saban wanted to share some advice. Don’t go to a goal line formation on third and three.

“One coaching point I’ll have for you, Mario,” Nick Saban said. “Since you mentioned it. Third and three, third and three is not the time to go to goal line.”

College GameDay had some technical difficulties with the Cristobal interview. He did get the message loud and clear, though.

Saban and his seven national championships are hard to ignore. After all, he’s one of the game’s legends and knows just about everything there is to know. Despite that and the technical issues, Cristobal pushed back. His logic was that it was a situation where Miami was prepared to go for it on fourth down. So, he pushed back a bit, while also jabbing at Saban for his new TV role.

“Coach is saying don’t go to goal line,” Cristobal said. “How about if you’ve got two downs? You used to have that kind of mentality but now that you’re in the big business and the TV world, I guess you picked up on it.”

Cristobal and Saban do have a long history together. From 2013 to 2016, Cristobal was an assistant coach at Alabama, taking on offensive line and assistant head coach duties during his time with the Crimson Tide. So, it’s safe to say that this wasn’t the first time Saban shared some wisdom with Cristobal.

In the end, Cristobal’s strategy worked in the Cotton Bowl. Miami would win 24-14, and in the process, they converted on 7/14 third downs and on the only fourth down where they went for it. Only 11 teams have converted 50 percent of third downs or better in the entire country this season. So, it’s safe to say the Miami gameplan was working.

Next up, Miami is turning its attention to the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl. There, the Hurricanes will play either Georgia or Ole Miss with a shot to play for a national championship on the line.