COACH… “a muddy and bloody night”

In the midst of packed “Rock” and steady rain, Miami upset Notre Dame, 27-24, in a hard-fought game. After the game, head coach Mario Cristobal reflected on his team’s thrilling victory.

“It was a muddy and bloody night, said Cristobal. “All night it was like rock'em, sock'em robots. First of all, hats off to coach Freeman and his team because he has an unbelievably talented and competitive team and a great coaching staff. He has done an awesome job. We knew this game was going to be about who has one more shot in them? Who is willing to go and not let anything get in the way of doing their job? Everything was about the players and doing our jobs on every single play. They took to that challenge and they ate it up. They got after it all the way to the end and sometimes domination takes place on the final play of the game and that is what happened.”

On preparing for this challenge to open the season…

"Our offseason training camp is becoming legendary because of the adversity we put our guys through and it helps us get off to a great start every year in every place that we have been. Do we feel good about it? Absolutely. We felt that if we got that field goal and they then had to go down the field, that our pass rush could take advantage of their offensive line.”

On the final drive…

"We started the game well, but had the issue with the field goal. Then our middle eight was awesome. We scored going into the half and then scored coming out of the half and then we stalled. It was a big play by the defense getting the turnover and Rueben returns it. We settled for a field goal. After that, we all felt that in practice he (Carter Davis) hits it at 55+ yards and he made 63 yarders. We have a lot of confidence in him. It is what we practiced. Our practice and preparation became a game reality.”

Final thoughts…

"I want to thank everyone who came out tonight and made that place electric. It was really a different level of impact for us and our players. They were all about it and that is what college football is all about. Our student section was jammed up and there was so many alumni. This game is for everybody. I got to see coach Jimmy Johnson. I am proud of this team. The resiliency and complementary football. There was a couple of hiccups, but overall it was an awesome night.”

Miami will next play host to Bethune-Cookman this coming Saturday night at the ROCK. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m.ET.

Come pack the Rock again as our Canes drive for a championship.

GO CANES!