Mario Cristobal didn't spend the postgame presser looking for excuses after Miami's 27-21 loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff national championship game. Instead, he praised the team that helped elevate the program and made it clear that "close" is not the standard at Miami.
Cristobal opened his postgame press conference by thanking God and then immediately pointed the spotlight at his players, calling them "the best thing that's happened to Miami and the University of Miami in over two decades." He returned to that theme repeatedly, framing the season as a culture reset. "They had the guts, the faith and the trust to look at a place that was a complete mess, and say, 'I'm going to make the University of Miami a prominent program once again.'"
Miami fell to Indiana 27-21 in CFP title game
Indiana led 10-0 at halftime, got a game-changing blocked punt touchdown in the third quarter, and then sealed it with an interception in the final minute. Cristobal said on the field that Miami "never stopped," but admitted the obvious. "At the end, we had a turnover," he told reporters. "We had a chance to win all the way to the end, but we didn't get it done."
When asked about quarterback Carson Beck's final interception, Cristobal didn't dodge the question, but he also didn't put it on his QB either. "We win together, we lose together," he said, calling Beck resilient and praising the work ethic and trust he built inside the locker room.
Cristobal also addressed what appeared to be a miscommunication on that last throw. "It's the right place to go with the ball," he said. "Just got to be a little bit further and a little bit farther outside. We didn't connect on it, and turnover."
Cristobal called the loss painful, but he also refused to let it erase what Miami did to reach the title game. "These guys won 13 games this year... we're one drive short of winning the national championship."
He also mentioned the emotions of losing a game like this, while saying that it's natural to feel a level of hurt when suffering a loss like this. "I do see pain in moments like this," he said. "And we should if we're a competitor that's worth anything. You feel it and you use it and you give those feelings a direction."
Cristobal was also asked about what Miami can build on moving forward, and he said that the leadership was the team's real foundation, pointing to the way his players responded after a low point in early November.
"The ability to take a team on November 1st that was lower than low and to find a way that every single day hold people accountable, it is a testament to what they are... They're the best thing that's happened to Miami, the University of Miami and our community in 25 years."
He didn’t gloss over Indiana. Cristobal credited the Hoosiers' defense as a mature, well-coached unit. "Good players, good scheme," he said. "They're mature, they're older. They understand how to leverage the ball, communicate really well."
But, the most telling stretch of Cristobal's postgame presser came from when he addressed the lazy assumption that a near-miss like this guarantees a return.
"You don't just automatically return to a game like this just because you're mad," he said. "You've got to improve from a roster standpoint, a regimen standpoint, discipline, everything, and move forward."
Cristobal sounded like a coach proud of what his team became, and is determined to make sure the pain turns into something this team can utilize properly next season.