COACH… “Good to go!”

October 13, 2026 - Miami head coach Mario Cristobal made his weekly appearance on The Joe Rose Show on Monday morning. He shared his perspective on the upcoming game against arch-rival Florida State and updated the injury situation.

It's rivalry week. No. 3 Miami (5-0, 3-0) is preparing to host arch-rival Florida State (3-3, 1-2) after a bye week to rest and recuperate from injuries. Coach Cristobal deliver some great news on injuries. He announced that CB Xavier Lucas, DE Marquise Lightfoot, LB Ezekiel Marcelin and DB Damari Brown are “good to go” for the FSU game. However, OG Max Buchanan is out but hopefully will return late in the season and CB OJ Frederique appears to be a long term situation, possibly out for the season.

On the bye week…

"The bye week was very productive for us”, said Cristobal. “The focus was on development, on having some physical practices, making sure that we got certain guys healthy, focused on conditioning, focused on preparation for FSU. Like I mentioned again, getting healthy.”

On facing the rival Seminoles…

“First thing I would say, aside from this series, I would say in college football, throw the records out. I really would. I mean, that statement fits now for the state and the landscape of college football. As it relates to this game, I mentioned before. To me, it's the greatest rivalry in sports. Obviously, I'm always going to be biased, but I remember watching it growing up, being a part of it. The intensity, the passion of the fan bases, right? The state of Florida, and really outside the state of Florida as well. They've got really good players. We've got really good players, and it's just always been a level of intensity that I believe is unmatched.”

On fighting complacency…

“I think you have to look at scores as it relates to last Friday. A fourth-and-two conversion makes it 21-0, and the game's practically over. A 21-6 lead at Alabama and a seven-point game with four and a half minutes left is real. Looking at football around the country, watching the one game. I believe it was Oklahoma, Texas, right? Unranked team versus No. 1 team in the country, and at the end of the game, right? So, football nowadays, everybody has really, really good talent. If anyone is assuming that they should win or they're entitled to winning, they're out of their minds. They're going to get beat, and we hammer that and drive that home. Not only in terms of preaching it and showing it, and really ripping through examples around the country, but you make it the way you practice. You really challenge your guys. You make sure your coaches are on edge. Your entire organization is on edge, and that point's got to get hammered through. It's got to hit home, and so we just keep it very real. We don't try to deny that there's noise out there and everything else. We just attack it."

On the ACC and the national landscape…

"Some people might say it's weird. It's competitive. When people say, "Well, this team should win. This other team should do that. What should what? Why? What are they entitled to do? This is football, and football was never meant to be a beauty pageant. It's a competitive sport where it's settled on the field, and in terms of the ACC is doing great. The quarterbacks in this league, the level of coaching schematically we have up front and at the skill position, it's shown and it's shown strong, and it's going to continue to show strong. But to start labeling who's best or who's this and that in week five of the season? Personally, I just click through because that's absurd to me. Like there's there's no week five trophies to be handed out, awards, medals. Those concepts like they're undigestible to me. Like they come, you know. It just doesn't make sense. And the goal is, since we're always fighting for our players' minds, that they think that way as well, and that just staying focused on. I really couldn't care less about what's going on in the outside world. So all I care about is making sure University Miami and its people do right, do right by each other, represent the class, and go win.”

Miami host Florida State on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN and WQAM-560.

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