COACH… “It’s the Rats”

Miami dominated arch-rival Florida State on Saturday night. Early Monday morning, head coach Mario Cristobal appeared on The Joe Rose Show on 560-WQAM. He shared his thoughts and feelings on the game.

The Seminoles went into the game wanting to stop or slow down Miami’s power ground game. They packed the box and Miami responded by quickly adjusting to the air game.

"We felt like we had been running the ball really well to the point where people had been packing the box and there was going to be opportunities there," said Cristobal. Quarterback Carson Beck dialed up the Canes’ air attack. Boom! Two touchdown passes later Miami held a 14-3 lead at halftime. The Canes came out of intermission and bang, another two touchdown passes gave Miami a 28-3 lead in the fourth quarter. For the Game, Beck hit 20 of 27 passes for 241 yards and four touchdowns.

"The timing and precision of that (vertical passing) is always going to be a question. You get your five or six or seven shots in a game and you'd like to hit on half of them and we hit on most of them. Carson, the receivers, the execution, there was a lot of high level execution.”

Carson Beck, true freshman receiver Malachi Toney and senior CJ Daniels took control of the game and the outcome was never seriously in doubt.

On CJ Daniels…

"It starts with his leadership and attention to detail," said Cristobal. "That deep post he caught early set the tone for the rest of the game."

On Malachi Toney…

"What people don't really talk about with him is that he is one of the most physical players on the team. That includes all the trench players. You watch him from snap one until the end of the game, he is always throwing himself around and getting up in there.”

Florida State came out right away and drove the ball down to Miami’s five yard line. The Canes’ defense then took a stand and forced the Noles to settle for a field goal. That defensive “hold” set the tone for Miami’s defense the rest of the night.

On DE Rueban Bain and Akheem Mesidor…

"He (Bain) is always attracting the attention of another lineman and another tight end trying to chip him. The way he affected the quarterback and their game plan was awesome.”

"He (Mesidor) played with a violence and level of effort and toughness that was awesome. He wants to get better.”

Mesidor finished with six tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, and eight pressures

On the play of safeties Jakobe Thomas, Zechariah Poyser and nickel Keionte Scott…

"The levels of physicality and the way they ran the alley on the sweeps and reverses, they made their presence felt."

Thomas, Poyser and Scott totaled 24 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, and two forced fumbles.

“Those guys really change things,” said Cristobal. “When teams try to eliminate your line of scrimmage by spitting the ball to the perimeter, you have to have dudes out there that play like those trench monsters. Our guys are getting better at block destruction.”

On FSU's fourth quarter rally…

"I think some times the simplicity of rivalry games runs its course. You are never secure in it and never completely out of it. It goes back and forth. Play-calling wise, we played the stuff we felt great about in the game and other stuff that we thought could hurt them and some penalties and self-inflicted wounds hurt us and lack of execution hurt us. We got away from playing complementary football and they did a great job of sustaining drives with fourth down conversions.”

"When you are up 28-3 and you get the ball, you have a chance to really slam the door. We take it personally when we don't…The ability to learn while you still won is awesome. The ability to learn your lessons without feeling the consequences of a loss is awesome.”

On winning the state of Florida championship…

"A big part of the vision was handling business in-state and making it known that we are going to handle business here and restore order. To go out and do it for a second year in a row is one of our prominent goals. It lasts for a full year. It has to be well known that we are going to recruit and play at a level that isn't going to be matched in this state.”

Coach Cristobal is very pleased by Saturday’s victory over its arch-rival. However, he is cautioning his team block out the noise and distractions.

"It is not only the rat poison, you know what it is? It's the rats. It is the rats that start getting into players heads and saying oh you should play more and you should get more attention and you have to tell them take all of that and shove it. We ain't talking about all that. We ain't listening to that stuff. If that is on your mind, you aren't in the right program. You have to get rid of all that crap… This is a team sport. It is still football. The ball is placed on the tee and kicked off and let's get to work."

“There is zero complacency in the building."

GO CANES!