How Hurricanes are fixing late-game time management. And Cristobal talks helmet communication

Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal wants to ensure a moment like what happened at the end of the Georgia Tech game last season doesn’t happen again.

A quick refresher for the uninitiated: Miami had a three-point lead over Georgia Tech with 33 seconds left and had possession of the ball. A kneel-down on third-and-10 would have sealed the game and improved Miami to 5-0.

Instead, Miami ran the ball, Georgia Tech forced and recovered a fumble and scored the game-winning touchdown to stun Miami, 23-20.

“We had a process in place,” Cristobal said. “We just didn’t follow it.”

To make sure the process is followed, Cristobal on Monday during his weekly news conference before the No. 19 Hurricanes open the 2024 season against the Florida Gators on Saturday said Miami has added a time management coach to the staff to “always just overharp on the situation.” Cristobal declined to say who holds the time management coach role.

“We didn’t follow the process, which is the most important part,” Cristobal reiterated, “but we certainly cranked up the intensity and the organization behind it.”

Earlier in the day, speaking on WQAM’s Joe Rose Show, Cristobal was asked what he had learned during his time so far as the Hurricanes’ head coach.

Cristobal took the opportunity to do some introspection.

“You look in the mirror, you look at your own faults, you look at the ways you can make your team better and you attack it,” Cristobal said. “Luckily, for me, I was raised by some bad-ass parents. … They were always like, ‘Hey man, own up, man up. Don’t focus on anything except going forward’ and remind yourself why you came to Miami. You came to Miami to end the 15, 20 years of — to get Miami to what it needs to be doing.”

Canes talk helmet communication system

Time management isn’t the only form of communication the Hurricanes have worked on throughout camp.

The NCAA’s playing rules oversight committee in April approved the use of coach-to-player helmet communication systems, changing the way teams can operate on game day.

The basics: Only one player for each team is allowed to be in communication with coaches while on the field. That player will be designated with a green dot on his helmet.

The communication system will be turned off either when there are 15 seconds left on the play clock or after the ball is snapped — whichever comes first.

Team personnel will also be allowed to use computer tablets to see in-game video in coaching booths, on the sideline and in locker room during games.

“There’s a lot of things that go with this,” Cristobal said, adding “as long as it’s used the right way and efficiently, as long as the information is presented with clarity, it’s a bonus. If it’s unorganized and jumbled, then you can create your own issues as well.”

On offense, the quarterback will be the player involved in the headset communication. As for the defensive side of the ball, Hurricanes defensive coordinator Lance Guidry said that responsibility will go to a linebacker even though the Hurricanes are more of a “safety-driven defense”

“You have to get the calls to the defensive linemen,” Guidry said. “You can’t give the calls just to a secondary guy and he be able to relay it, so it’ll go through ‘backers and that’s kind of the way we’ll do it.”

All of this will be put to the test for the Hurricanes on Saturday when they play in a sold-out road venue at Gainesville’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which has an official capacity of 88,548 but has had announced crowds of over 90,000 before.

“The noise level itself, nowadays you’ve got to simulate that in practice,” Cristobal said. “Everything’s got to work. ... If you watched games this weekend, you saw a lot of guys squeezing their helmets trying to get clear communication. So what happens next [if the helmet communication doesn’t work]? Everything else has to kick in — your wristbands or signals, your other methods of communication. That’s been part of our process, which we worked really, really hard to make airtight in every regard.”