Mario Cristobal and Greg Schiano reuniting when Miami meets Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl

Updated Dec. 27, 2023 12:48 p.m. ET

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Mario Cristobal remembers the task like it was yesterday. He was a graduate assistant at Miami in the late 1990s, told one day to drive to the airport and pick up someone who was arriving to interview for the Hurricanes' defensive coordinator job.

That someone was Greg Schiano.

They hit it off quickly, Cristobal marveling at Schiano's work ethic, Schiano raving about Cristobal's willingness to learn. They've been close ever since — and now, they'll go head-to-head in Thursday afternoon's Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, with Miami (7-5) seeking its first bowl win since 2016 and Rutgers (6-6) seeking its first winning season since 2014.

“He gave me my start, was the best mentor I’ve had in this business, always a great friend," Cristobal said. “I know on game day we’ll be trying to knock each other out. Aside from that, certainly him and his family from the moment I got in the coaching industry, he was a reason why it was able to actually happen.”

They have remained close. When Schiano left Miami to become head coach at Rutgers for the first time before the 2001 season, he took Cristobal with him — no small feat prying a Miami native and Hurricanes alum out of South Florida.

Here they are, together again, trying to make sure their teams end 2023 the right way while building toward, they hope, better things in 2024.

“We’ve kind of grown together, right?” Schiano said. “We’ve been through some tough times, some good times. I knew when I got him, he was the best coach on my coaching staff at whatever he was, 25 years old, 26 years old. I trust him blind. There’s not a lot of people I trust in this world. That to me is the biggest thing. ... In life you meet people and you can probably count on one hand the people that you truly trust, truly admire. Mario Cristobal is one of those guys.”

CITY TOUR

Among the bowl-week stops for both teams: a trip to the Sept. 11 memorial at Ground Zero, and being on Wall Street when the New York Stock Exchange opened on Wednesday — both the Hurricanes and Scarlet Knights taking part in the ceremonial ringing of the bell.

Schiano and Cristobal were both at Rutgers on Sept. 11, working that morning when the world changed.

“Our players need to understand that that is a day in history that forever we have to remember, honor those that unfortunately fell that day,” Cristobal said.

TEAM CHANGES

Neither team will be exactly the same as it was when the regular season ended. Miami will start QB Jacurri Brown — who hasn't taken a snap in 2023. Brown is the only healthy scholarship quarterback on the Miami roster and got the call for the Pinstripe Bowl because now-former starter Tyler Van Dyke entered the portal and transferred to Wisconsin.

Rutgers seems to have much more continuity. Most of Rutgers' defensive starters are expected to play Thursday, as is 1,000-yard rusher Kyle Monangai.

THE SERIES

Miami is 11-0 all-time against Rutgers, winning those games by an average score of 46-10. The former Big East rivals played annually from 1993 through 2003, didn't play before that stretch and haven't played each other since.

PINSTRIPE HISTORY

It's the third time in the bowl game for Rutgers, the second appearance for Miami. Rutgers beat Iowa State in 2011 and lost to Notre Dame in 2013, while Miami lost to Wisconsin in 2018.

A bad sign for Miami — Atlantic Coast Conference teams have lost each of the last six Pinstripe Bowls, while Big Ten teams are 7-1 in the game.

QUOTABLE

Miami linebacker Kiko Mauigoa on playing in Yankee Stadium: “It's just special. You don’t get a lot of opportunities to do that, and I’m excited."

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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