Mario Cristobal’s Miami rebuild is nearly complete

After Miami pounded Florida State by 22 points a couple weeks ago, coach Mario Cristobal walked into his post-game press conference and put out a recruiting statement for every top prospect to hear.

“All recruits, in-state, out-of-state, can now clearly see the trajectory of this program versus the trajectory of the other programs,” Cristobal said.

The Hurricanes are 9-0, will be heavily favored in their final three regular-season games and are currently ranked fourth in the country.

That is a far cry from where Cristobal found the program just a few seasons ago in the 2021-22 coaching carousel that was one of the wildest in recent memory.

Prior to his arrival, Miami was stuck in mediocrity. The Hurricanes had plenty of winning seasons but never anything like a playoff run or a shot at the national championship.

The U had one double-digit winning season since joining the ACC in 2004. Many of the players on the current team weren’t even born yet.

As Florida hoisted national championship trophies under Urban Meyer (although that was quite awhile ago, too) and Florida State was arguing it should make the College Football Playoff after an undefeated regular season, Cristobal kept his head down and rebuilt the Hurricanes.

It was actually more of a resurrection than a rebuild since Cristobal, who had major success at Oregon before coming back to his alma mater, didn’t have many pieces in place.

Great recruiting and managing the transfer portal were the keys to getting Miami back into national prominence. Too many elite South Florida players were leaving for Georgia or Alabama.

It took a few years as Cristobal went 5-7 and then 7-6 in year two and even felt a little hot-seat action. But Miami is one of the best nationally now and would head to the playoff with no losses.

The convincing win over Florida State – which is just having a disastrous season and the very hot seat Florida coach Billy Napier sits on (he came to the Gators the same year Cristobal got to Miami) – only reinforced the Hurricanes’ rebuild is near completion.

“We knew when we came here we were going to get our teeth kicked in early,” Cristobal said. “Man, wow, this is quite a monumental task. We need to flip this thing. We need to flip this roster. All these other in-state schools are so far ahead. They have a foundation, they’ve been to bowl games, they’ve won conferences. We got to start it up and that’s painful particularly when it comes to the trenches. …

“It’s a great example of working your butt off and keeping your head down and not worrying about all the crap that comes with rebuilds. … We’re progressing but we’re not anywhere near where we want to be yet.”

The U is back. And Cristobal’s rebuild, rebirth, whatever you want to call it, is in full stride.