Mario Cristobal silenced his biggest Miami critics when it mattered most

Mario Cristobal will probably never live down the mistakes he made in Miami's game against Georgia Tech in 2023. It was probably one of, if not the lowest point, in his career as a coach.

But despite how often fans and rivals remind him of that game and continue to hold it over his head, Cristobal has moved on and, more importantly, he's learned from some of his mistakes. His improvements in game management have been evident throughout the playoffs and they showed up again Thursday night in Miami's 31-27 win over Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.

For those that need a reminder of that October evening over two years ago, the Hurricanes held possession of the ball with a 20-17 lead late in the fourth quarter. Miami could've taken a knee and ended the game in victory formation, but Cristobal opted to call a running play to Don Chaney, and he fumbled the ball, which the Yellow Jackets recovered. Haynes King went on to take the Yellow Jackets 74 yards and 24 seconds, throwing a 44-yard touchdown pass to Christian Leary with two seconds left to give Georgia Tech a 23-20 win.

Some labels can't be escaped and Cristobal has never been able to escape the label that he can't manage a game since that day. But on Thursday night, he showed that he has worked hard to become better at game management.

Miami had the perfect game from beginning to end

Cristobal knew Ole Miss wanted to wear down Miami with tempo, so he made sure the Rebels' offense spent a large part of the game as spectators. Trinidad Chambliss and company spent over 41 game minutes watching on the sidelines while the Hurricanes' offense churned away long drives (four drives over 13 plays) and converted third down after third down.

And when the game was on the line, Cristobal made sure that Miami had timeouts to spare and, even in the final 30 seconds, the Hurricanes had the option to run the ball on their goal line possession (which they did with Marty Brown for a 5-yard gain). That forced Ole Miss to have to respect Miami's ability and willingness to run the ball even with 20 seconds left in the game. 

Fans and pundits will continue to mock Cristobal for things that happened two years ago and that's their right. But he's moved on and now he'll be coaching for a national championship that they thought he would never be good enough to compete for.