The Miami Hurricanes will be the first team to compete for a CFP title at home, and that could be a blessing and a curse.
No team in the Bowl Series Championship/College Football Playoff era, dating back to 1998, has had the chance to win a National Championship in their home stadium until now. The Miami Hurricanes will be the first, as they take on the Indiana Hoosiers at Hard Rock Stadium in the CFP title game on Monday, Jan. 19. There’s certainly much to be celebrates with a rare home-field advantage in the most important game in the sport, in addition to no travel time or disruptions to preparations.
However, there’s often a reason players decide to leave their home states to play college football: distractions in many forms. Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal will seek to block out those distractions and outside noise ahead of next Monday.
"You either create them, or you don't, and so we get out ahead of that,” Cristobal said during CFP media availability on Monday.
Cristobal is aware of the distractions that Miami can provide, as a former player from 1989 to 1992 and current head coach. But for the Hurricanes’ biggest game since 2002, he is hoping to keep his team locked in on a journey that has been laser-focused from the start.
Here is the full story from Miami Roundtable writer Anthony Aguirre on the unique challenge Cristobal faces this week.
Now, in the age of social media, distractions can be a mere picking-up-the-phone away. But with all the hoopla that comes along with the largest game in their home city, it can permeate more when it’s coming out of one’s backyard. But it’s also a chance at history against an undefeated team that’s looking for one more win to make history in the Hoosiers. Miami is the underdog of the postseason with upset after upset, and they’ll look for one final one surrounded by a roaring home crowd.