Miami’s bowl skid continues, but Hurricanes get good news on day after Pinstripe Bowl

The ending was familiar for the Miami Hurricanes, who lost a fifth straight bowl game Thursday after coughing up a second-half lead to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York. Miami hasn’t won a postseason game since 2016 — Mark Richt’s first season at his alma mater; three coaches ago for the Hurricanes — and mostly hasn’t even been particular competitive in those games, with the five losses coming by an average of 13.2 points.

In some ways, Miami’s loss to Rutgers in the 2023 Pinstripe Bowl felt similar to some of the Hurricanes’ recent postseason failures, with undisciplined play and a spotty offensive performance for Miami overwhelming its talent advantage. In others, the Hurricanes’ latest bowl loss still felt new — and maybe a little bit less concerning because of all the starters missing for various reasons and, most importantly, for the good news they got right after it ended: Xavier Restrepo is coming back to Coral Gables.

“GOD THE GREATEST!! What do you say Miami,” the wide receiver wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday, accompanying a photo with the words, “RUN IT BACK.”

The news was a boon for the Hurricanes and Restrepo explained why, without breaking the news, only hours earlier when he spoke to WQAM after Miami’s loss at Yankee Stadium on Thursday.

“We’re a whole lot better team than we were last year,” the wide receiver said, “and that’s going to be the same thing next year.”

Year 2 for coach Mario Cristobal at his alma mater was undeniably frustrating, but it also marked clear progress, at least as far as infusing the roster with more talent.

In Year 1 for Cristobal, the Hurricanes failed to reach six wins in the regular season for the first time since 2007 and yet still wound up signing one of the best recruiting classes in program history, while augmenting the roster with important additions through the transfer portal. In Year 2, Miami improved from five wins to seven and pulled in an even better recruiting class, while continuing to work hard to find a new quarterback via the transfer portal.

The end result of Cristobal’s approach — and the new realities of college football — is that the Hurricanes of this week did not look much like Miami of the regular season and won’t look much like the Hurricanes of next season.

Miami (7-6, 3-5 Atlantic Coast) was missing seven usual starters for the bowl game — including quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who has already transferred to Wisconsin; and offensive linemen Matt Lee and Javion Cohen, and safeties Kamren Kinchens and James Willaims, all of whom opted out of the game to begin preparations for the 2024 NFL Draft — and perhaps had double-digit starters who won’t actually wind up being starters next season.

Quarterback Jacurri Brown, who accounted for 238 yards and three touchdowns, didn’t play all season before this week and will likely just compete for a backup job next year, if he doesn’t decide to transfer. Offensive linemen Luis Cristobal Jr. and Ryan Rodriguez made their first starts, filling in for Lee and Cohen, and will probably return to reserve roles in 2024. On defense, cornerbacks Te’Cory Couch and Jaden Davis played their final college games out of position, filling in at safety for Kinchens and Williams. Metaphorical asterisks cover any sort of analysis of Miami’s performance in the Bronx.

“They’re going to have to cut their teeth. They’re going to have to learn from some of the things that come with playing, but I think the entire country is facing that,” Cristobal said. “We’ve taken the route of we knew we had to enhance the roster and we were going to play a lot of young players. If it comes with it, we just have to coach them up better, teach them better and get guys doing it the right way the whole time.”

More enhancements to the roster are coming by way of the Hurricanes’ Class of 2024, which is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation in the 247Sports composite rankings, and whichever high-profile quarterback decides to transfer to Miami. Only so much can be gained, though, by always looking at only what’s coming next and so it was important for the Hurricanes to get strong performances from returning players.

Restrepo had 99 receiving yards and a touchdown Thursday to become only the sixth 1,000-yard receiver in program history. He’s coming back.

Linebacker Francisco Mauigoa led Miami with 12 tackles on Thursday and offensive lineman Jalen Rivers started his 13th straight game at left tackle. Although the Hurricanes are losing about half a dozen early entrants to the NFL Draft, those two veterans decided to hold off on testing the professional waters to return to South Florida for another season next year.

Defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. had seven tackles and three tackles for loss, running back Mark Fletcher Jr. started his fourth game before leaving early with an injury and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa started his 13th at right tackle. Those three, still freshmen, will be Hurricanes for at least two more years beyond this one.

A barely-better-than-.500 season won’t quell any of the deserved skepticism around the future of this program. Neither, even, will another top-five recruiting class. Together, though, they suggest real reasons for optimism -- a feeling at least Restrepo, Mauigoa and Rivers are all buying into.

“We have a standard and you go into each year looking back at the last year wanting to be better,” Rivers said Thursday. “We learned from last year. We still have a lot to improve on, but we made a major step. Going into next year, I feel like we can make that step to where we can come out with wins, at least outlast our opponents.”