Miami Hurricanes get crushed 40-10 at Clemson in harsh measuring-stick game for Cristobal | Opinion

The measuring stick, it just hit Mario Cristobal upside the head.

Saturday in the stadium they call Death Valley was Cristobal’s first opportunity as a college football head coach to see as an eyewitness the one Atlantic Coast Conference opponent that his Miami Hurricanes must figure out a way to compete with and then eventually be better than.

UM’s dream-path back to playing for national championships won’t stop going through Clemson, the mammoth ACC roadblock, until the Canes rise up and make it so.

Saturday, Cristobal got the full measure of the gulf that separates the Tigers from his team. It must have been a little like looking out across the Grand Canyon, but with a view less pleasurable.

He saw the mountain he must climb in what Dabo Swinney has built -- a climb Cristobal has only just begun.

Miami got clobbered, 40-10, by No. 9-ranked Clemson -- a Tigers squad not nearly as dominant as some recent years -- and there was hardly a moment when a UM fan could have been anywhere close to confident. Or been surprised at all by the result.

“They’ve got a really good football team,” Cristobal said of Clemson. “They’ve been where we’ve been before. They’ve built it up. I get it. We’ll be there.”

These two schools have played four times since 2015. Clemson has won all four by a combined score of 178-30.

Saturday’s final score did not reflect Clemson’s overall domination. Miami ran only 42 offensive plays to the Tigers’ 84. Totals yards were 447 to a paltry 98. Ninety-eight!

As I type this in the fourth quarter I can hear Cristobal in his postgame presser saying, “We didn’t quit,” and noting the better second half. Not enough. Not nearly.

At halftime, down 24-0, Miami had nine net totals yards on 17 plays. The Canes’ average play gained roughly 19 inches. Granted, UM played again with starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, still out with a shoulder injury, and freshman Jacurri Brown was overwhelmed,including taking a second-half safety.

But this wasn’t one injury, one position. This beat-down was complete.

UM finally sniffed Tigers territory to open the second half but turned it over on downs on 4th-and-1 at the Clemson 26. Cristobal didn’t settle for a field goal, at least. UM got that later on.. One of three Clemson turnovers at its own 10 made easy UM’s lone touchdown on a short pass by Jake Garcia, who smartly replaced Brown and lent a spark.

You want a bright side? The second half, relatively speaking. The defense somewhat held its own. But this reality-slap of a game was not one for bright sides. This was a sloppy off-game by Clemson, and still it wasn’t close.

The victory gave Clemson its 40th straight win at home and its 12th straight 10-win season. The Tigers are headed back to the ACC championship game, which has become all but a birthright.

The loss left Miami 5-6, and needing a must-win next Saturday vs. Pittsburgh to even become bowl-eligible in a face-slap of a first season back at UM for Cristobal. UM was last 5-6 after 11 games in 2007.

What Clemson has, Cristobal has seen at Miami. He helped create, in fact.

What he said postgame bears repeating: “They’ve been where we’ve been before. They’ve built it up. I get it. We’ll be there.”

Two of UM’s five national titles, in 1989 and ‘91, came when Cristobal was an offensive lineman for The U. He was a big part of Miami’s record 58-game home winning streak that ended in ‘94. He was a part of countless games when it was the Canes doing to an opponent what Clemson just did to him.

Cristobal also was an assistant on Nick Saban’s staff during some of that greatness, playing Clemson twice for the national championship, Alabama winning in 2015, and Clemson the next year.

The ‘Bama pedigree led Cristobal to a successful stint as head coach at Oregon, but he jumped at the chance to come back home to Coral Gables.

I believe in Cristobal, even at 5-6. He knows what great programs have. His 2023 recruiting class has scored some huge gets.

But it’s also easy to imagine now, in the middle of 5-6, that he didn’t know how just much work awaited him. How much climbing he had to do.

Three horrible losses at home already told him plenty. The ignominy of defeat against Middle Tennessee. Eight turnovers vs. Duke. A 45-3 shellacking by Florida State.

Saturday told him more, though, and loudly.

Because Clemson is the team you have to beat to get where you’re going.

And where you’re going, for now, seems a long ways away.