Mario Cristobal and Steve Sarkisian just turned the College Football Playoff debate into a public back-and-forth. With both the Hurricanes and Longhorns jockeying for at-large spots in the 12-team field, Texas' head coach took aim at Miami's late touchdown at Pitt, and Cristobal fired back by pointing out their loss to Florida.
On SEC Network, Sarkisian was making the case that Texas' resume is being undervalued compared to teams ahead of them. He then pivoted into an obvious shot at Miami, accusing certain contenders of running up the scores. Sark was specifically referencing the Hurricanes' final drive at Pitt.
Mario Cristobal sounds off after Steve Sarkisian called out Miami for scoring with 41 seconds left against Pitt while leading 31-7 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/OsYkSrXvF0
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"My point to everybody is, is this about what your record is at the end? Or, is it don't play good teams, put up a bunch of yards, put up a bunch of points, and make it look good. You know, throw fade route touchdowns with 38 seconds to go when you're ahead 31-7 so that score looks better. So is the committee really watching the games? Or are they just looking at a stat sheet at the end of the game and say 'oh well they won by this many points, they must have played very good.'"Steve Sarkisian
The play Sarkisian is mad about came in the final minute, when Beck hit CJ Daniels on a 30-plus-yard fade to make it 38-7.
A few hours after Sarkisian's comments aired, Cristobal joined the Canes InSight show and essentially said he understood everyone is "posturing," but that Texas also has to live with how it looked against a common opponent.
"I get it, everybody's trying to posture themselves for their programs and whatnot, the great part about stuff like that when coaches try to speak about themselves like that, they also gotta take a look at the common opponent between us and that particular coach. Seeing that we had the opportunity to really dominate that opponent while that opponent dominated them."Mario Cristobal
The common opponent is Florida. Miami handled the Gators 26-7 on Sept. 20 at Hard Rock Stadium, holding them to just 141 total yards of offense.
Two weeks later, that same Florida team upset No. 9 Texas 29-21 in Gainesville. The Gators ran for 159 yards and controlled the game late.
Cristobal certainly has a point here and it seems like Sarkisian may have chose the wrong team to criticize. After all, both Miami and Texas appear to be on the outside looking in before the penultimate CFP rankings.