Cristobal praises preparation, physicality in Miami’s blowout of USF

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — No. 5 Miami rolled to a 49-12 win over No. 18 South Florida on Saturday night, extending its unbeaten start with another display of offensive balance and defensive dominance.

Quarterback Carson Beck passed for 340 yards and three touchdowns, while running back Mark Fletcher Jr. added 120 yards and two scores on the ground.

The Hurricanes finished with 576 total yards on offense and their defense held South Florida to just 40 rushing yards on 27 carries, a 1.5 yards-per-carry average.

Head coach Mario Cristobal credited his players’ preparation and effort, while also pointing to the scout team for helping simulate USF’s up-tempo attack.

“We were in preparation for a team that had been playing really, really good football, really good football team, and, handling what they do best, which is tempo, right, trying to work people down and so, hats off first goes out to our scout team simulated them as good as you could possibly do all week long,” he said in part. “But the physicality, the level of energy that we play with tonight was progress for our football team.”

Beck said distributing the ball to a deep group of playmakers has made the offense fun to run.

“I mean there is so much talent on both sides of the football, but you know speaking offensively, you look at every position group from the line to the tight ends to the running backs to the wide receivers, and there’s no miscues anywhere,” he said.

“You go throw (to) a guy out there I mean that you might, you might not even have seen in week one or week two and then week 3 it’s like, oh, who, who’s this guy with getting the 60 yard reception, you know what I’m saying? So, man, it’s awesome for me,” he added.

“My success is very dependent on those around me and man those dudes just worth their tail off,” said Beck. “Again, every single position group that all the work from the film to the physical part of working out and practicing and then ultimately coming to Saturday and executing. It’s been a lot of fun this year and just looking forward to continue to keep working and getting better week by week.”

The Hurricanes’ defense forced three turnovers, including a fumble recovery by linebacker Chase Smith and an interception from freshman safety Bryce Fitzgerald — his second in as many games. Defensive tackle Booker Pickett also notched the first sack of his career.

Linebacker Mohamad Toure said he was thrilled to see his freshman teammates step up and make plays.

“Yeah, I love seeing guys do good,” Toure said. “Like we all support each other, we all, you know, during the summer we all work like I just got here so I met these guys. Still proud of him, still happy for him, you know, I communicate, talk to these guys all the time. We cheer each other on, they cheer me on and I cheer. Happy to see younger guys succeed.”

Defensive end Akheem Mesidor said the unit’s third-down consistency was key to shutting down USF drives.

“Well, we talk about winning the three downs all the time. First, you gotta win first and second down, which I think we did a pretty good job of, and then you gotta earn the right to get the third down the rush to pass it. We talk about it all the time,” he said. “I think we just. You wanna go after it. The line back of the TV communicated. everybody just played. We just have great chemistry, I feel like we just play.”

Miami, which improved to 3-0, will turn its focus to the Florida Gators, who fell to 1-2 after losing back-to-back games against USF and LSU.

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