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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - JULY 15: Head coach Mario Cristobal of the Miami (FL) Hurricanes speaks during the ACC Kickoff media days at Hilton Charlotte Uptown on July 15, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Matt Kelley/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Happy Monday, errrrrrrrrbody. It’s time for that thing I do every Monday that you all kindly come here to State of the U to read (which I greatly appreciate, by the way).
We’re now a little over a month away from the start of the 2026 season, and that means that ACC Media Days recently took place. Your Miami Hurricanes were of course in attendance, so let’s get down to what went down and what was said.
1) Mario Cristobal answered questions from the media, and one thing that stuck out to me was a question about his approach to looking in the portal for a quarterback.
“Well, we were in the market for a quarterback,” Cristobal said. “We felt that the team was really set in so many areas. When Darian hit the portal, we felt, you know what, this is a guy we would love to pursue. Watching crossover tape with so many opponents that we had faced, we saw his level of talent and play. And what really took us by surprise in a great way is what an incredible young man he is. His levels of leadership, care factor, time invested in his craft, football IQ, just natural human IQ, just an elite person along with the guys beside him.
“And we found ourselves also in a situation like in previous years where it was time to take a portal quarterback. We feel going forward that now we are set in that room from a high school standpoint with what we have on the roster and with what we have coming in.
“I’ll also say this: that every single year is different. Even though our foundation is the high school player, we’re never going to deny ourselves the opportunity to get better as a program if there is a player that we can pick up in the portal that can help our program elevate.”
Now, TO ME, the things to take away here are that they are planning on turning to the future starting next year, and it’s not hard to understand why. Luke Nickel will have a full year in the system, and he should be in position to compete with incoming five-star QB Israel Abrams from Arlington Heights, IL (who is woefully underrated by On3/Rivals, but still…). Either has the chance to elevate into a potential gamer.
But there’s no doubt that someone is going to enter the portal with experience and with game changing potential. Those players are hard to pass on, but at some point, you’ve got to get your young talents some runway to develop and take off. Abrams or Nickel could be that player, but if Miami is a ready-made QB away in 2027 from being a true top-echelon national title threat, it’s a tough call to not dip into that portal market for yet another year.
2027 is far away and we have a whole 2026 still to go, but that one resonated with me, perhaps because it was one of the more intriguing answers to a question from Cristobal on the day (not that Cristobal wasn’t honest and direct, but there were plenty of questions about motivation, consistency, growth from next guys up, etc. that didn’t offer up much in the way of a noteworthy response).
2) Oh, and Cristobal was asked about the importance of having Miami alumni on the sideline, and coach had quite the quip in response.
“It’s important that Michael Irvin never kisses me again on national TV,” Cristobal said.
Coach has jokes! Kidding aside, Irvin smooched Cristobal on the cheek after Miami’s 10-3 win at Texas A&M in the CFP first round. I’m guessing if it meant another smack on the cheek from the Playmaker in Las Vegas on January 25 with Miami winning it all, that Cristobal would gladly take it.
3) I don’t know if you all saw it over the weekend, but 5-star Miami Carol City WR and Hurricanes commit Nick Lennear showed off just how bad of a dude he really is.
Lennear, one of the crown jewels of Cristobal’s 2027 recruiting class, attended the 7-on-7 event at St. Thomas University over the weekend that was put on by 305 Sports, and he turned out to be one of the stories of the event.
Lennear went one-on-one against Texas A&M CB commit Loia Valade in a clip that went viral. Lennear shook himself open with a nasty stop and go, and he tracked the ball into the end zone. Valade, to his credit, caught back up and made a play on the ball, but Lennear juggled and caught it in the corner of the end zone for a nifty score.
Lennear has an incredible ceiling, and he and Malachi Toney could be quite the electric pairing in 2027. Can’t wait to see what this young man is going to do in orange and green without question.
Go Canes!
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