In Miami's 40-10 loss to Clemson on Saturday, the Hurricanes managed just 98 yards of total offense.
That was just the latest chapter in Miami's offensive struggles this year under first-year offensive play caller Josh Gattis.
Gattis and the Hurricanes lost third-year sophomore starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke a few weeks ago (and may get him back for their season finale against Pitt), and had their fair share of offensive struggles throughout the year.
Heading into the last regular season game of the year, fighting for bowl eligibility, the 'Canes rank 92nd offensively in points per game (24.3), and 85th nationally in total yards per game (365.8).
Coming in as one of the hottest coordinators in college football, and fresh off taking home the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in college football, while the offensive coordinator at Michigan last year, the expectations for Gattis and the Miami offense were understandably high, but they've fallen well short of that hype in year one.
Asked, bluntly, about his thoughts on Gattis and his play calling, Cristobal took the high road.
“You don’t share certain things in public,’’ Cristobal shared, via The Miami Herald.
“You always try to work things out within the walls of the program. We’ve done a really good job in hiring coaches that have had tremendous success in every place that they’ve been at. We’ve had our offensive struggles but we put that on all of us. You just don’t start singling out people and isolating people during the season. That’s not it."
“People either come together or they unravel. You have to be the example in terms of leadership to the entire organization. So, our entire focus is on doing whatever it takes to get one more point than the opponent...whatever that is. Whether things are going well, whether things are not going so well. That’s our entire focus and that’s all we talk about.’’
First off, there's no doubt that Cristobal has shared his unfiltered thoughts with the 'Canes offensive staff. No one in that building is satisfied with where they are offensively.
Secondly, well handled, Mario. Everyone can see the offensive struggles, and as the leader of the program, throwing his offensive staff under the bus to the media when baited would have sent the wrong message inside the walls of their facility. Instead, he handled the question admirably.
Miami will finish their regular season this weekend against Pitt at home. A win gets them bowl eligible, which would mean some valuable extra practice preparing for a bowl game.