Mario Cristobal confirms the good injury news on Bryce Fitzgerald and Mark Fletcher

Finally, some good news on the injury front for the Miami Hurricanes.

Mario Cristobal said that defensive back Bryce Fitzgerald and running back Mark Fletcher will be fine moving forward. Both players should be expected to return to their starting roles against Pitt this Saturday. 

"A lot of those guys got banged up, but they know this is a legacy game, right? I mean, this is bragging rights for the year and really for the rest of your life, and found a way to get back in there and play Hurricane football," Cristobal said on the Joe Rose Radio Show.

Fitzgerald was injured on the first defensive snap of the game and returned, but was re-injured later in the first half. Originally, there were reports that Fitzgerald wasn't going to return to the game, but when the Seminoles were down to their last snap in the second overtime, the former Freshman All-American was on the field to intercept a Hail Mary pass and save the game. 

"Coach Cristobal always says, 'if you're injured you can't go, but if you're hurt, you're gonna go,' so I told him I was good to go, and he trusted me to go back into the game," he said in his postgame comments.

Miami is beginning to turn the corner with injuries

The Hurricanes have been decimated by injuries, and Cristobal is never going to make excuses when players go down. Miami has always been about the "next man up," and when those Hurricanes are called into duty, they have often performed admirably.

Fletcher hasn't seemed like himself this year. The explosive running and the power aren't there, at least not to the level that we saw from him in the playoffs last season. Fletcher had a couple of nice runs and a touchdown against the Seminoles in the first half, but in the second half it was the Javian Mallory show and after a 108-yard, two-touchdown performance, we might see a lot more of Mallory in the backfield. 

"He's finally healthy again," Cristobal said of Mallory. "He's going to be a big factor."

There were also signs of life from Jordan Lyle, who had a season-high 42 yards on nine carries. If Lyle can build on that performance, Miami can go back to a three-back rotation and continue to get back to a consistent, effective running game.

As for the secondary, Xavier Lucas is back in his full-time role and the results were mixed, especially when he had to go one-on-one with Duce Robinson. Other injuries and the disqualification of Zecharian Poyser forced Corey Hetherman to leave the cornerbacks out on an island at times and paid for that risk. But Lucas should continue to get back to speed, and Cristobal even floated the idea of JaBoree Antonie coming back at some point this season.

"He's still going to be out for a significant amount of time. We will see more towards the end of this year," he said. 

Miami's early injuries had forced young players to get up to speed quickly and now that some of those veterans are returning to the field, the Hurricanes are as deep as they've been all season. And it's coming at the right time. 

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