Mario Cristobal has reestablished Miami as the power it was in his playing days

Miami football coach Mario Cristobal has said many times that he doesn't like it when people refer to the Hurricanes as being "back." He doesn't think the school ever really left, although it might not have been nationally relevant for a few years.

The Hurricanes (12-2) are more than just relevant again. They'll be squaring off against Mississippi (13-1) in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 at State Farm Stadium, with a berth in the College Football Playoff championship on the line.

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Perhaps no team is hotter than Miami.

The Hurricanes traveled to College Station — never an easy place to play for a visiting team — and knocked off Texas A&M by a 10-3 score to start the postseason. Then Miami delivered a knockout blow to defending champion Ohio State, 24-14.

Miami is seeking its sixth championship, but it has been 25 years since the last one. The Hurricanes won their five titles between 1983 and 2001. There have been six coaches in the program since the title in 2001, when Larry Coker was at the helm.

Cristobal, 55, is rounding out his fourth season. Having the school be relevant again is personal to him. He grew up in Miami. He played at the school from 1989 to 1992 and was part of two of those title-winning teams.

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He served as a graduate assistant at the school and was later an offensive line coach there before leaving to cut his teeth as a head coach. In short, he has been part of the program for a long time. It's hard to compare teams, and he hedged when asked what makes this team different.

"I think that this team's maturity, its approach to, and professionalism as it relates to preparation and practice and being able to carry that over to the playing field on game day," he said, during a Zoom session with the media before the team departed for Phoenix. "For us, it's been a team that has progressed tremendously over the past couple of years. We're just focused on our 1-0 process, and that's about it for us."

Whether Cristobal may not want to concede it, the program was stagnant for 15 years, managing just one 10-win season between 2006 and 2021. The state, and the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas in particular, had always been a hotbed for talent. While some players stayed at home, premier prospects began looking elsewhere as other programs were more attractive alternatives at the time.

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Meanwhile, Cristobal paid his dues. His first head coaching gig came at Florida International, also located in Miami, and starting a football program in 2002. He was that program's second coach and is one of just two to have taken the school to a bowl game. It was a challenge to coach a start-up school in the shadow of a major program in the same city. It was a tough sell. Resources were modest, and Cristobal had to focus on finding diamonds in the rough because the most talented athletes in the area were not going to choose FIU over Miami.

He later worked under Nick Saban at Alabama and served as an assistant to Willie Taggart at Oregon in 2017. In 2018, he took over for Taggart.

"One thing that I value the most in terms of learning was really reconfirming what I learned under coach (Jimmy) Johnson and coach (Dennis) Erickson, the guys I had a chance to play for here, is that under no circumstances can you allow human nature and complacency to take over yourself and the people in your program," he said. "That's at all costs, and that's a daily fight. When you wake up, that's got to be like opponent number one that you have to attack with intent, with urgency."

Both stops were valuable learning experiences.

"It opened my eyes to what college football had grown into, what it had become, the resources necessary, the level of recruiting required, the staffing and personnel and organizational charts and the calendar of the year," Cristobal said. "All that is fine. It still comes down to the people and the mentality, and I'll say that that was the number one thing that I will always just keep at the top of the priority chart as it relates to our program."

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Of course, the landscape in college football now revolves around money, and Miami has plenty of boosters with deep pockets. Put that together with Cristobal's highly regarded acumen for recruiting, and that is a winning formula. He landed elite quarterbacks — first Cam Ward, then Carson Beck — to lead the resurgence.

Famous alumni of years past have gravitated back to the program. The likes of Michael Irvin and Ray Lewis are now around. A lot.

No doubt the team's identity has gone back to its smash-mouth physicality, particularly in the trenches. The Hurricanes rank third nationally in sacks, fourth in scoring defense, fifth in rushing defense, and 10th in total defense.

The offensive line has given up just 15 sacks in 14 games, another area in which it ranks in the top 10.

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"That's what coach Cristobal instilled in his," junior running back Mark Fletcher said. "He wanted us to always believe we're the alphas and just continue to be the most violent team. That just goes to how we approach practice, how we approach the weight room, how we approach everything that we do. We want to be the most violent team in everything that we do. We take pride in that."

All say having a team with players who are on the same page has been a driving force as well.

"Just getting the brotherhood right," said senior linebacker Wesley Bissainthe, a Miami native. "Every person in that locker room is playing for each other. That's what it looks like when we're out there. No one is just playing for themselves. The brotherhood, I feel like it's one of the most important things in a team's culture. You have to play for the person beside you."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mario Cristobal has reestablished Miami as football power