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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — There is a new energy around Greentree — perhaps the only practice field in America with its own name. Ask any Miami football player to talk about their time as a Hurricane, and inevitably Greentree comes up.
That includes second-year Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal, who put his own sweat equity into the Greentree practice fields during his time as a Miami player from 1989 to 1992. To those like Cristobal who won national championships with the Canes, that practice field is hallowed ground, and is symbolic of all the work it took to win it all. That is what Cristobal wants to get back to; that is what he wants his players to know and understand.
There’s renewed energy here a few weeks before the season opens. A year into the job, Cristobal has turned over the roster, revamped his coaching staff, brought in a top-flight recruiting class and built from the inside out — starting with the offensive line, the position he played at Miami. Practice is more spirited and competitive; the progress is there.
Cristobal points to his towering freshman offensive tackles, Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola, as difference-makers, then raves about center Matt Lee, a transfer from UCF. On and on he goes, touting the vast changes and improvements made across the board to get Miami closer to his vision for the program.
“The massive amount of work done in one year has put us on a great trajectory to begin progressing at a good rate,” Cristobal told ESPN in a recent interview. “The secret is out there in the dirt. Put your hand in the dirt. Go to work. The work done over this past year has been incredible.”
There might be no better measurement for how far Miami has come from a disappointing 5-7 record in 2022 than Saturday, when Texas A&M comes to town (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Win or lose, a narrative will be set, and those within the football program and on campus know it. At Miami, big wins often lead to big proclamations, and big losses often lead to downward spirals.
Last season, Miami lost at Texas A&M 17-9, then proceeded to drop four straight — including an ugly 45-31 home loss to Middle Tennessee. Then in November, rival Florida State won 45-3 in Miami — a thoroughly dominant performance and a clear reminder that the Hurricanes were only in Year 1 of their rebuild. Florida State, a program with similar issues when coach Mike Norvell took over, was in Year 3.
Alonzo Highsmith, general manager of football operations and a Miami alum himself, said he remembers looking at his watch when he got home after the Florida State loss. It read 12:48 a.m.
“I don’t ever want that feeling again,” Highsmith said. “Remembering that day, Nov. 5, 12:48 a.m., I said to myself, ‘We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to be better. The only way we’re going to get better is to get better players. It puts the fire in me that I needed. I hope two years from now, I can look at my watch again at 12:48 and remember Nov. 5 and say, ‘You know what? It was worth it.'”
Like Cristobal, Highsmith put in his sweat equity at Greentree, having won a championship, too, during the course of his Miami career — the first one, in 1983. He had been working in various NFL roles over the previous 23 years but decided to come work at Miami because he, like Cristobal, wants to get Miami back on top.
“This school was built on work ethic,” Highsmith said. “This program was built on pride, and this program was built on kids wanting to prove something to the nation. Everybody had everything better than Miami. Better facilities. They played in bigger stadiums, they played in packed houses. So it was always a chip on our shoulders at Miami to go beat those teams. It meant something to players here.
“That’s something that’s been lost over the past 20 years, because somewhere along the line, people thought when you played at Miami, it meant you were a pro football player. It meant that you threw up the U and you were going to walk on the field, and you’re going to dominate. But that’s not the real world. You’ve got to work. You’ve got to come here with a purpose. You have to be willing to sacrifice. That’s what Mario wants. I didn’t come back here as a retirement job. I came here to roll my sleeves up, and get to work to help get Miami football back to where we need to be, and that’s playing in the college football championship.”
Cristobal returned to his alma mater after four seasons at Oregon, a program he took to two Pac-12 championship games and where he had recruited at an SEC level, including two top-six classes. He knew it would be painful to rebuild and reset the foundation at Miami.
He remembers telling his wife, Jessica, after deciding to leave Oregon, “Do you understand this will consume my entire existence?”
“We came here because this is the place I love the most,” Cristobal said. “We know that this is the place that when done right is the best and also fully understanding you better be a tough son of a b—- to come here and do this job because it was left in a bad spot.”
Still, as the losses mounted last season, Cristobal said, “I beat myself up, of course. Any Hurricane does. If you bleed it, you’re going to feel it. If you don’t feel absolutely disgusted in the pit of your stomach, then you probably ain’t really about it.”
Cristobal focused on recruiting, one of his strengths, and Miami signed a top-five class — getting 15 ESPN 300 players to sign, as well as much needed help along the offensive line and defensive lines. In addition to Mauigoa and Okunlola, defensive end Reuben Bain Jr., running back Mark Fletcher Jr. and cornerback Damari Brown are among the true freshmen expected to make serious contributions this season.
Miami also used the transfer portal to bolster several key areas. Lee and Javion Cohen (Alabama) start on the offensive line; Francisco Mauigoa (Francis’ brother), led the team in tackles in the opener against Miami (Ohio) after spending his first two seasons at Washington State.
Beating a Group of 5 school and looking much improved over a year ago is one thing. Beating Texas A&M is quite another. Cristobal is no stranger to this, especially at a place where the expectation is championship or bust. What happened last season may have dampened a rousing homecoming for a native son, but it does not weaken his resolve in making sure he does everything he can to win.
Cristobal has new coordinators after just one season with departed OC Josh Gattis and DC Kevin Steele. New offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson runs a style that is more suitable for what quarterback Tyler Van Dyke likes to do, and defensive coordinator Lance Guidry gets the most out of his players with his unique and sometimes exotic schemes.
Tight end Cam McCormick, who played for Cristobal at Oregon, says the reason he came to Miami is because he believes in the way Cristobal runs his program. In a town where immediate results are expected, McCormick has been trying to preach patience.
“I see his vision,” McCormick said. “I’ve been with him so long, I know how he works. People question it sometimes, I’m like, ‘Listen, just buy into it. Trust me, it works.'”
There is no deviating from the vision, and there will be patience. Miami gave Cristobal a 10-year contract, and it is going to build a $100 million football operations center that Cristobal has spearheaded. It is investing in him to get it right, win or lose on Saturday.
“We’re not here for an experiment,” Cristobal said. “We’re here for the duration, and we’re here to do it the right way so it’s built to last this time.”
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