Miami’s Mario Cristobal needs a win vs. A&M
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Jimbo Fisher is in his sixth season at Texas A&M. Mario Cristobal is in his second season at Miami. Both programs are coming off 5-7 finishes in 2022 leading to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. showdown in Hard Rock Stadium on ABC-TV.
The Aggies didn’t win a true road game last season, and Fisher needs a victory in a big way. Maybe as much as Cristobal, a former Hurricanes offensive lineman from the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
“I look at this game and I (see) 5-7 for A&M and 5-7 last year for Miami, and here they are in Week 2, they met last year and it was not a pretty game for Miami,” Herbstreit said on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning of the Aggies’ 17-9 win a year ago at Kyle Field. “Maybe it’s because I like Mario, maybe it’s because I had such high expectations for his first year that he would go back to his alma mater with a chance to kind of get them going, and it just fell flat.
“Here he is in Year 2, and I don’t know if there’s a game out there where a team and a coach need a win more than Miami against Texas A&M.”
The Aggies opened their season with a 52-10 home win over New Mexico behind new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and the Hurricanes opened their season with a 38-3 home win over Miami of Ohio. Longtime ESPN analyst Lee Corso was the only College GameDay crew member to pick Miami.
Guest picker Joe Willie Namath offered from the GameDay’s set in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in anticipation of Texas at Alabama on Saturday night, “I live in South Florida and I haven’t heard much about the Miami Hurricanes at home. I really believe A&M is going to be better this year with Petrino.”
On to your missives, as always some edited for brevity and clarity:
Q: Who will be the biggest surprise player the Aggies have on the field against the Hurricanes? — Big Mike
BZ: It won’t exactly be a surprise, but I expect junior running back Amari Daniels to make an impression in his home state of Florida. Daniels rushed for 51 yards on only seven carries in the Aggies’ win at home against New Mexico to open the season.
Fisher has liked to lean on the run in road environments to chew up some clock and get his team settled in, and I believe that will happen against the Hurricanes, even if the Aggies made a point to really sling it around against the Lobos to help Weigman get comfortable with his receivers and airing it out.
Q: What are the odds that Bobby Petrino can do for Conner Weigman what Petrino did for Lamar Jackson? Or was that the other way around — what Jackson did for Petrino? — Randallion
BZ: The two benefited each other, no doubt, but Petrino had put together some solid offenses long before he recruited Jackson to Louisville in 2014.
Weigman, who had a nice 17-yard run early against New Mexico, said he asks Petrino if Weigman “remind (s) him of Lamar.”
A smiling Weigman said Petrino just shakes his head. Weigman, a former five-star signee out of Bridgeland, does have that dual-threat ability, and it likely will be on display against Miami out of necessity.
Q: Are we going to be able to stop the run against Miami? — Jason
BZ: If the Aggies plan to win they’re going to have to. The Hurricanes averaged 6.9 yards per carry in their 38-3 win over Miami of Ohio, led by Henry Parrish Jr.’s 90 yards on the ground.
A&M was awful last season against the run, ranking 123rd out of 131 teams in that category, but that slew of five-star defensive linemen appear to be growing up in a hurry under second-year defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin.
