Mario Cristobal didn’t need to draw up a play to make his point. In the lead-up to Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship, the Miami head coach delivered a raw, unfiltered message that went far beyond football.
It was about pride. It was about frustration.
And it was about a two-decade-long buildup of watching the program he once played for become a national punchline.
“I had 20 years of watching Miami get ridiculed. It pissed me off,” Cristobal said in a fiery interview.
“I got to the f****** point where I couldn’t stand the sh** going on. My brother told me, ‘If you don’t f****** do it, who the f*** is?!’”
That wasn’t just a soundbite. That was Cristobal ripping the lid off years of bottled-up emotion.
And now, standing on the doorstep of a national title, it’s clear this job has never been just a job for him. It’s personal.
Cristobal, a Miami native and former Hurricanes offensive lineman, knows exactly what this program used to be. He lived it.
He wore the uniform during the Hurricanes’ glory years, winning national championships in 1989 and 1991. So when he left Oregon in December 2021 to come home, it wasn’t just about rebuilding a football team-it was about restoring a legacy.
And now, here they are.
No. 10 Miami is set to face No.
1 Indiana on Monday night at Hard Rock Stadium in the program’s first-ever appearance in the CFP title game. It’s a full-circle moment for Cristobal, who has spent the last few years reshaping Miami’s identity, not just on the field, but in the national conversation.
The “Is Miami back?” question has followed this program like a shadow for years.
Every time the Hurricanes fell short, the jokes came easy. But this time, Miami didn’t just show up-they stormed their way into the championship.
Their playoff path wasn’t light work. The Hurricanes opened with a gritty first-round win at Texas A&M, then shocked Ohio State in the quarterfinals before taking down Ole Miss in the semis.
That’s not a fluke. That’s a team peaking at the right time, playing with purpose-and playing for something bigger than just a trophy.
Indiana, meanwhile, enters as the top seed and undefeated. They’ve looked dominant throughout the playoff, and Vegas has them favored for a reason. The Hoosiers have been a machine, steamrolling opponents and coming into South Florida with all the momentum in the world.
But Miami’s got something that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet: a head coach who’s been through the fire with this program, who bleeds orange and green, and who has turned his personal mission into a team-wide belief.
Cristobal has mostly kept things buttoned up this week, avoiding the temptation to turn the game into a nostalgia tour for “The U.” But make no mistake-his passion is pulsing just beneath the surface.
This isn’t just about reclaiming a spot at the top of college football. It’s about proving that Miami never truly left-it just needed the right person to bring it back.
And Cristobal? He didn’t wait for someone else to do it. He answered the call himself.