Miami turnover ‘had to happen,’ Cristobal says

David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterJul 25, 2023, 05:43 PM ET
Close
- ACC reporter.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of the University of Delaware.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Miami coach Mario Cristobal said Tuesday he’s looking at 2023 as a fresh start after a miserable first year with the Hurricanes in which he had to do a major overhaul of the team’s culture.

Miami hired Cristobal away from Oregon last year amid great fanfare and a promise to inject new life into a program that hasn’t won a championship since joining the ACC in 2004, but his initial season was marred by injuries, embarrassing losses and a 5-7 final record that Cristobal chalked up to a clash of cultures between the old regime and the new one.

“It was about as opposite as you can get, bringing in our hard-nose blueprint and tireless work ethic and what Miami was doing [before],” said Cristobal, who was a player on Miami’s 1989 national championship team and a graduate assistant for the 2000 team that won another title. “So what happened last year, it’s not fun. No one likes it, and I certainly don’t like it. But it had to happen.”

After the season, nearly two dozen Hurricanes players entered the transfer portal; defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, linebackers coach Charlie Strong and quarterbacks coach Frank Ponce all left for other jobs; and Cristobal fired offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. The exodus was followed by Miami landing a number of top transfer additions and a top-five recruiting class that has Cristobal optimistic the program has finally turned a corner.

“Every team has a different starting point,” Cristobal said. “This one in particular needs work. And the massive amount of work done in one year has put us on a great trajectory to begin progressing at a good rate.”

If the purge of former players and coaches was one step in Miami’s 2023 rebuild, retaining starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was another. After last season’s struggles, Van Dyke said he seriously considered leaving.

“There was a time, everything was so bad with how the season went, and I had no idea what was going on with the coaching staff that I was considering [a transfer],” Van Dyke said. “But I couldn’t do it. This is where I wanted to be the entire time.”

Van Dyke said five teams contacted him, pushing him to enter the transfer portal in December, but he ultimately stayed at Miami because he believes in Cristobal’s vision for the program — despite the extended period of instability at coordinator before Cristobal ultimately fired Gattis and hired former Houston OC Shannon Dawson.

“What Shannon has done in his history really fits Tyler, his skill set, the pieces around him,” Cristobal said. “It gives him the opportunity to enhance a supporting cast.”

Cristobal said he won’t have a true feel for this team’s ceiling until camp opens next month, but he said the direction of the program should be obvious to anyone who watches the Hurricanes this season and that last year’s struggles were just a necessary step in a longer process.

“What we do works,” Cristobal said. “The clear fact that’s as clear as the day is long is that Miami didn’t get to this spot overnight, and you don’t get out of that spot overnight.”