COACH… “We can't pretend it is no big deal.”

Nov. 9, 2026 - Miami head coach Mario Cristobal made his weekly appearance on The Joe Rose Show on Monday morning. He shared his prospective and thoughts on the Canes first loss of 2026 and his thoughts on Miami’s next opponent, Duke, this Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.

On the referee’s call …

"I voiced my frustration and it is time to move on," Cristobal said. “"I don't want to disrespect the game of football. Notre Dame won, they have a great coach and a great coaching staff. We are moving on and it (focus) is on to Duke.”

On his team’s defensive effort in the second half…

"We finally got our cleats in the ground and our eyes were clean. We started communicating and executing at a higher level. We have to build off of that.”

On the performance of Miami’s defensive line…

"I thought the interior defensive line played well. There was times on the outside where we need to be get better."

On the team’s mindset after that defeat.

"Everybody in the locker room had the right type of positive anger," said Cristobal. "We dug ourselves out of a hole. There are no consolation prizes. We need to continue to get better. It is going to be good to get back home and get an early start. We need to start every day fast so we can play fast on Saturday.”

On the loss of Malachi Toney just days before heading to South Bend…

"Initially it is a shock and we can't ignore that. We can't pretend it is no big deal. But this is a reason why we preach and teach getting everybody on the roster ready to play. We met as a team and addressed it. [Malachi] loves nothing more than playing football and it was time to move forward and we did a good job of doing that.”

On the importance of the upcoming game with Duke…

"It is playoff football. There are probably eight teams [ACC] that are in line to win a conference championship. It is one game at a time. They have a great defense and they have an offense that is one of the best in the country at points per drive. It is going to be a challenge.”

GO CANES!