College Football

Miami HC Mario Cristobal on Jimmy Johnson After CFP Win: 'He Changed Our Lives'

Updated Jan. 1, 2026 10:55 a.m. ET

Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes are feeling it.

After beating the No. 7-seeded Texas A&M Aggies on their home turf in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Miami defeated the No. 2-seed Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday night, 24-14.

On the field after the game with Cristobal, who was an offensive tackle at Miami from 1989-92, was former Hurricanes head coach Jimmy Johnson, who Cristobal is eternally grateful for.

"At the end of the day, he changed our lives, my brother and I," Cristobal said when talking about Johnson after the game. "We were still kind of a nobody. We pride ourselves on that. He offered my brother and I scholarships. My parents, may they rest in peace, they didn't even know what a scholarship was. They were Cuban-Americans that came over and found a way and tried to make a living. Fast-forward, almost 40 years later, he's [Johnson] out there on the sideline supporting us. He set such a high standard …

"Really proud that this team is making him proud, and also, again, the first thing he says, 'remember, let's keep getting better.'"

Johnson quoted a post on X of the aforementioned Cristobal quote, saying, "We’ve come a long way!"

As a player, Cristobal was part of two Miami national title teams (1989 and 1991). Meanwhile, Cristobal's brother, Luis, played guard at Miami from 1987-90. Johnson, who later went on to win two Super Bowls as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys (1992 and 1993), was the Hurricanes' head coach from 1984-88, with Miami going a combined 52-9 and winning national title honors in 1987; he was previously the head coach at Oklahoma State from 1979-83.

Prior to taking over at Miami for the 2022 season, Cristobal, who was a graduate assistant for the Hurricanes from 1998-2000 and an offensive assistant from 2004-06, was the full-time head coach at Oregon from 2018-21, with the Ducks amassing a combined 35-13 record. He was also the head coach at Florida International from 2007-12. Cristobal was then the assistant head coach/offensive line coach at Alabama under Nick Saban from 2013-16 before joining Oregon's coaching staff in 2017 and later becoming its head coach.

Under Cristobal, Miami is a combined 33-18 since 2022, currently in the midst of back-to-back double-digit-winning seasons and is now 12-2 in the current season.

Miami will play the winner of the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Ole Miss in the semifinal round of the College Football Playoff on Jan. 8.

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