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Mario Cristobal Reflects on Miami Hurricanes’ 4-0 Start, Says Team “Loves to Work”

On3 imageby: CaneSport.com Staff09/24/25CaneSport
mario cristobal UF
(Neil Gershman-Zooba Images)

The Miami Hurricanes are cruising into a bye weekend at 4-0 … and with a surprising top 10 Florida State team up next. On Wednesday, On3’s J.D. PicKell caught up with Miami coach Mario Cristobal for his thoughts on the State of the Canes.

And Cristobal stressed this is a team that “loves to work.”

With the bye here, Cristobal shared his thoughts on the progress of his program after he took over a roster with massive talent holes four years ago. He said it’s comparable to when he took over a struggling FIU program and Oregon as well.

“They are all similar in terms of progress,” Cristobal said. “We are only four games in, so you’ve seen a ton of (progress) – as it relates to the line of scrimmage, physicality, the execution of our system. We also see a bunch of areas with a ton of improvement to get where we want to be.”

Cristobal’s roster is built completely by him now, aside from a pair of older guys in Ryan Rodriguez and Chase Smith. So this team is his, and it’s buying into his philosophy.

“We believe in a vision, doing things a certain way,” Cristobal said. “We feel connection, intention, purpose, feel very connected. We just want to keep improving.”

Cristobal also spoke about QB Carson Beck, saying Miami coaches “recognized his ability was off the charts” out of the portal and that “we had the guys up front to protect him, the skill position (playmakers) to let him go to work.”

“We’ve had some pretty good success so far,” Cristobal said. “He just wants to win.”

One of Beck’s favorite targets is freshman WR Malachi Toney. And Cristobal recounted how his son wanted to skip school one day to watch Toney at practice.

“He plays the game like a defensive player almost, very aggressive – attacks the ball,” Cristobal said of Toney. “You can coach him hard, push him – he just wants to know how he can get better.”

Cristobal weighed in on OT Francis Mauigoa and DL Rueben Bain, who are high NFL level draft picks.

“Francis and Rueben Bain, it’s like Jurassic Park, two creatures going at it,” Cristobal said.

As for postseason accolades, including perhaps Bain even getting some Heisman chatter if he keeps up his high level of play?

“We do everything we can to increase their value and exposure throughout the season,” Cristobal said.

With the UM-FSU rivalry game coming up Oct. 4, Cristobal said, “That’s what we knew as college football back in the day, felt like the title went through a couple of cities every single year. Such great football here in Florida, a national brand attracts players from all over the place. That’s what I always knew as the greatest rivalry.”

*Cristobal says he is in regular contact with his former Alabama coach, Nick Saban. And with Saban in town last weekend for GameDay, Cristobal said, “We talked about the rat poison stuff this past week.”

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