Mario Cristobal aims to renew Miami’s winning ways, this time as coach

Sometimes, late at night, when Mario Cristobal is leaving the Miami football complex, he drives toward Kindred Hospital, a long-term acute-care center. Before arriving, he often realizes his mistake and wheels around toward his family’s home near campus.

“It’s old habit,” he says. For more than three months, Clara Cristobal lay intubated in a hospital bed, in and out of consciousness, unable to speak. Her illness coincided with her youngest son realizing a dream—accepting the head coaching job at Miami last December, a Cuban American captaining his hometown team’s football program.

While he toiled away putting his plans in place to revive one of college football’s lost brands, Cristobal spent early mornings and late nights at his mother’s bedside. He would play videos for her. He would talk to her, hold her hand, brush her hair. She’d smile at times, even squeeze his fingers.

“At the end,” Cristobal says, “she started to blow kisses.” Her final goodbye, at age 81, came March 4.

“She went knowing that he was home,” says Luis Cristobal Jr., Mario’s older brother. “She got to know that. She was happy.”