Miami Offensive Starters
QB #9 Tyler Van Dyke, RB #21 Henry Parrish, Jr., WR #3 Jacolby George, WR #7 Xavier Restrepo, WR #4 Colbie Young, TE #84 Cam McCormick, LT #64 Jalen Rivers, LG #70 Javion Cohen, #55 C Matt Lee, #73 RG Anez Cooper, #61 RT Francis Mauigoa
Miami Defensive Starters
DE #9 Nyjalik Kelly, DT #58 Branson Deen, DT #56 Leonard Taylor III, DE #3 Akheem Meisdor, LB #51 Francisco Mauigoa, LB #23 K.J. Cloyd, STAR #0 Te’Cory Couch, CB #22 Jaden Davis, S #20 James Williams, S #5 Kam Kinchens, CB #2 Daryl Porter, Jr.
Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami HC Mario Cristobal
Postgame Press Conference Transcripts: Texas A&M
Sat., Sept. 9, 2023
Hard Rock Stadium
Opening Statement…
“How about them Hurricanes? So far, the reports that we have on [Kamren Kinchens] are that everything seem to be relatively normal, so I’m going to head over there right after I get done with the press conference and see how he’s doing. I think we’re going to be fine. Obviously, aside from that, it’s hard to talk about the game when something like that happens, but the guys played really hard. They overcame a lot of mistakes and self-inflicted wounds and found a way to just keep making one more play, get one more stop, another explosive. Special teams finally hunkered down and did some good stuff for us. The kickoff return was massive and certainly a swing in the momentum. Andy [Borregales], with his long field goals, helped us out, as well, a ton. And Tyler [Van Dyke], the receiving core, Xavier Restrepo, he’s back there right now and I’m sure he’s exhausted, the offensive line, the defense; it was just a complete team effort. I’m certainly proud of these guys. We played a really good game against a really good football team, a really talented football team.”
On the resilience after the first quarter…
“Well, I think it’s credit to the players because that’s always been the goal. When you change regimens and change cultures, you always have a choice to make and you can stick with what you believe in and sometimes it’s ugly, cause last year was. But if you believe in it and make sure that the right people continue to grow and stay and you bring in people that are like-minded and hard-working and that’s a nice combination and that leads to better culture, better atmosphere, better environment, better programs, better businesses, better organizations. That’s what we feel we are headed toward and today was a big step in the that direction.”
On the performance of the offense…
“[Tyler Van Dyke] was outstanding. Credit to him. Credit to the offensive line. Credit to the wide receivers. I mean all those kick returners, they all made plays. He’s been an absolute awesome leader. He had a lot of autonomy going into this game to do things. The matchups, we felt that we had good matchups. We felt that the receiving core has worked really hard and they’ve proven themselves in practice and did a lot of good things in game one and certainly, [Texas A&M] is loaded up in the box, it’s hard to run the ball against them…We had some success, but not much, so the passing game, they were awesome.”
On the growth of the Hurricanes over the last year…
“I think that’s a better Texas A&M team than we faced last year, quite honestly. They’ve got better pieces. Their quarterback is a great player and their receivers are outstanding. For us, I would say, culture, talent acquisition, strength and conditioning, player development and leadership counts. Guys like Xavier [Restrepo] going the extra mile to be a great leader…The scout team; one of the tell-tale signs of a good football program is to take a look at what the scout team looks like. And the scout has legitimate football players on it, guys who were legitimate high school stars who are still trying to find their way into the lineup, and that usually tells you that you have a good front line. We are working our way there. We are nowhere where we want to be. We’ve got a couple of guys who are nicked up, banged up, and we’ll see what that looks like but all in all just a massive step for the program. They are a really good football team. They’ve recruited everyone in the country over the last few years so they are loaded to the gills, but we work hard, we practice hard, we train hard, we prepare hard. We felt that if we eliminated mistakes we’d be able to take over the football game and we did.”
On the importance of a win like this…
“Everybody wants to see progress, right? The offseason is so long and that’s what is hard about football. After nine months, what are you going to do? What are you going to be? What is it going to look like? Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve had a blueprint that has been successful. We came to Miami because, besides the fact that we love Miami, we knew that when Miami is done the right way, it’s the best one of them all. We are taking steps in the right direction. We are progressing. We are nowhere near arrived. We are nowhere near where we want to be, but today was a big step in the direction we want to go and I’m just extremely proud of everyone in that locker room.”
Miami Hurricanes Football: Texas A&M HC Jimbo Fisher
Postgame Press Conference Transcripts: Texas A&M
Sat., Sept. 9, 2023
Hard Rock Stadium
Opening Statement…
“Congratulations to Miami, they played a very good game. They did things they had to do and took advantage of some opportunities in the game. I thought in the game, we started off very good. We got a blocked punt, got a score, got up in the game. We got a muffed punt. We were doing a great job on special teams. The score was 17-7 and then they got a score. Right before half, we had a chance drove down there, a two-minute drive, got down there and missed a field goal. We could’ve got up 20-14 and we had the ball coming out in the second half. In turn, we gave up a drive and then got down 21-17. The guys played really hard and made adjustments at halftime. We came out and had a great drive, a six- or seven-minute drive and had fourth-and-one and we jumped a little bit on the play and we kick it. And then they hit a kickoff return. They got ahead once they got the kickoff return and got ahead, they got going. Then, the next route, we were going and 15 throws a great ball and we just slip; the receiver just slipped and fell down on the play. It was nobody’s fault. The ground just came out from under him and they got a pick. And then we dropped back down and scored again to make it 31-26. And then we’re driving back again and we fumbled a 3-and-1. We got a 3-and-1 and we were driving to take it and get a fumble right there. Then they go in and get a pick and then it goes back-and-forth a couple times, but the guys played their tails off. [Conner Weigman] played his heart out. I thought he played really good in the game to give us a chance to win. He almost got us back to where we could onside kick it. The receivers made some plays. We made plays in all three phases but we gave plays up in all three phases. We gave up some deep balls. I thought we played the run really well. We gave up some deep ball passes. They got down the field. I thought on offense we moved the ball. I thought the quarterback played pretty well in the game. They had some pressure and brought some heat on him and he stood in there and fought and did a pretty good job. We ran the ball when didn’t have to keep throwing it at the end. Special teams got blocked punt and got a critical turnover to set up points, but we gave up one in that we had a missed field goal. Too many didn’t find the plays at the right time, so give them credit. We have to fix those things and move on.”
On Miami’s yards after the catch…
“We didn’t tackle well. We had guys we could’ve tackled and we tackled poor in space. That is one thing we did last weekend. They had yards after catch and we had some guys with arms around them but we just didn’t make the plays and get them on the ground. They did a really good job of running with the football and we didn’t tackle well in space afterwards.”
On the progress from last year to this year…
“Our guys fought their tails off. I mean, we kept coming back, [Conner Weigman] brought us back and played his tail off. I thought he did a great job of keeping the game alive and making some drives to get us the ball and do things.”
On the lack of pressure on the quarterback…
“We need to find some different blitzes and get some guys on the edge to create some matchups…we need to affect the quarterback a little more.”
