Mario Cristobal is over hearing ‘The U is Back’: ‘I cringe at that all the time’

The U is back, but Mario Cristobal is done hearing about it.

The Miami Hurricanes returned to the top of the college football mountain this season, going 13-3 overall and playing for the national championship. While the program is still a ways off from the domination days of the 1980s and early 1990s, it’s fair to say, as many do, that “The U is back.”

Except please stop saying that around head coach Mario Cristobal.

“‘The U is back.’ I cringe at that all the time,” Cristobal told On3’s JD PicKell. “It just, like, drives me bananas.”

“I like to think in terms of Miami, or I like to UM, cause back when I played it was UM, is here. Because we have activated the most rabid, insane fanbase you can imagine, and also one that really galvanizes. And that’s what really attracted me to Miami as a player. I watched them just bring this entire community together,” he said.

“And I think it really hit hard when we came out of the tunnel at the Cotton Bowl against Ohio State. That place was just going bananas and was filled up with orange and green all over the place. That was like, ‘Okay, where this is now different, like, it’s on. It’s been activated.”

Cristobal has made good on his promise when he took over the Canes program in 2022. Following a 5-7 first season, he took them back to a bowl game in year two. Over the last two seasons, Miami is 23-6 and has performed very well in the College Football Playoff, with wins over Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Ole Miss.

Along with playing for the Hurricanes as an offensive tackle, he had multiple stints on the coaching staff before eventually returning to run the program.

So if Cristobal says “The U is here,” then that’s probably what Miami fans should go with.