#MarioCristobal can talk up “1-0 every week” as part of the #MiamiHurricanes’ culture—and as authentic as that may be—there is also personal pride and a long memory in regards to moments like November 19th, 2022 and Cristobal’s first season at the helm at #TheU. The recap headline read “No. 9 Clemson Tops Miami 40-10 For 40th Straight Win At Home” and it was crystal clear who the kings of the #ACC were in this season of college football. #Miami and #Clemson last met in 2020 when #MannyDiaz was still head coach—a lopsided 42-17 road beat-down in that reshuffled COVID season. Prior to that, it was a 38-3 ass kicking in the #Canes' first-ever #ACCChampionship game appearance—#MarkRicht avoiding the shutout with a late field goal when down 38-0, while Swinney and is Tigers had their post-game celebration mocking the #TurnoverChain. The real shit-show took place while Cristobal was still at #Alabama under #NickSaban—a 58-0 massacre at HardRock that saw #AlGolden fired the next morning, midway through season five. Safe to say Cristobal doesn’t pay much mind to 2015, 2017 or 2020—but 2022 was on his watch and it absolutely was one of those games where a first-year head coach walks off that field, shakes hands with that two-time national champion head coach on the other sideline and files the disappointment and emotions away in the memory banks—trusting that if things go according to play, there will be a get-back moment someday. Jacurri Brown was under center that day for Miami and three receivers had nine receptions for 68 yards—while Brown was the leading rusher, scrambling for his life—and Henry Parrish led the running backs with four carries for 12 yards … the Canes with 98 total yards on the day, while the Tigers racked up 447 and controlled the ball for 38:15. All that to say, the bigger story here lies in this video below—Clemson up 33-10 with 3:36 remaining and taking over on the Miami 36-yard line after Jake Garcia was sacked and fumbled. Yes, back-ups were in the game—but it was now six plays into the drive and Swinney wanted those “style points”—throwing on 3rd-and-3 and when that got stopped at the goal line, Clemson ran again with :16 on the clock to punch it in for a more-impressive 40-10 finish. The point here isn’t Swinney going for it, or kneeling—as some will point to Miami running late (with an eighth-string walk-on back) against Florida A&M. “You don’t want them to score—keep ‘em out of the endzone!” Fair enough. No, the point here is that it’s now 2026 and Miami is the team with the stronger roster and more recent success; Swinney and Clemson in that underdog role, going up against a head coach that remembers 2022—while the Hurricanes as a program are keenly away of the Tigers’ overall dominance this past decade. That 2022 ending won’t even be a footnote tonight as ABC broadcasts’s this primetime game from Death Valley … but in the back of Cristobal’s prideful brain, there are still memories of 40-10, that last trek to Clemson and that rub-their-nose energy Swinney and the Tigers had on display that evening.