After four complete regular seasons under coach Mario Cristobal, the Hurricanes have come a long way from their previous stretch of mediocrity. They are on the verge of potentially making the College Football Playoff for the first time, depending on how the selection committee views them.

It is a distinct change from the end of Cristobal’s first season, when Miami went 5-7, lost an embarrassing home game to Middle Tennessee State and missed the postseason.

“It’s been amazing to see where this program has (come) to,” linebacker Wesley Bissainthe said. “It’s been amazing, man. And that goes to show all the work we put in those four years. It wasn’t easy, but coach Cristobal has done an amazing job with us and his coaching staff. … Just got to keep it going.”

Over four seasons at Miami (with the conclusion of this season pending), Cristobal has accrued a 32-18 record. That is a small improvement from the four seasons prior to his arrival, where UM went 28-21. But the biggest changes have come in the last two seasons.

After a dreadful first season and mediocre second campaign, the Hurricanes started to hit their stride. UM has won 10 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2002-03.

Cristobal has spoken about how he needed to reconstruct the team after arriving at his alma mater and finding the program severely lacking in several areas.

“When we arrived at FIU, that looked like an atomic explosion had taken place and you had to start from Ground Zero,” Cristobal told The Kevin Clark Show in September. “And you get to Oregon, and it’s 4-8 and it was like a really sharp decline, but there were a couple of pieces you could do things (with).

“(Miami) was as bad as we’d been around in terms of the roster itself and the culture.”

Cristobal went about rebuilding the roster through the transfer portal and high school recruiting. His first class was ranked 13th nationally in 247Sports’ rankings, and he followed that with the No. 8 class in 2023, No. 6 in 2024 and No. 13 in 2025.

All of those recruiting classes have paid dividends. The 2022 class brought in Bissainthe and starters Ahmad Moten Sr., Anez Cooper and Matthew McCoy. The 2023 class had stars Rueben Bain Jr. and Francis Mauigoa, who are poised to be first-round NFL draft picks, as well as other key players. The 2024 class included starters like cornerback OJ Frederique Jr. and Markel Bell as well as up-and-coming underclassmen Justin Scott, Marquise Lightfoot and Armondo Blount. And Miami’s most recent signing class includes freshman star Malachi Toney and safety Bryce Fitzgerald, who closed out the Pittsburgh win with his fourth interception of the season.

Miami has also added crucial players through the portal, including its last two starting quarterbacks, Cam Ward and Carson Beck. Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist in his one year at UM and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. Beck has not had the same level of success, but he has been solid.

“When we got here, that was the whole purpose, right?” Cristobal told WQAM on Monday. “Build a sustainable team that gets better every single year. And that’s what we’re doing, and that’s not going to stop.”

There have been hiccups over the last two seasons, even as the Hurricanes have reeled off a 20-4 record over the last two years. Cristobal cycled through an offensive coordinator and two defensive coordinators in four seasons before landing on a pair of successful assistants. Shannon Dawson’s offense was No. 1 nationally last year and ended the regular season 21st this year. Corey Hetherman dramatically improved UM’s defense and took it from 68th last season to sixth this season.

But all four of UM’s losses the last two years were to teams that were unranked at the time; UM was more than a 10-point favorite in all four games. The losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse kept the Hurricanes out of the ACC title game and the playoffs in 2024. Miami’s losses to SMU and Louisville already ended its conference hopes and could doom the Hurricanes’ playoff chances again.

“We’re 20-4 in our last 24 regular-season games, and the ones that we didn’t get, they came down to one possession or one play,” Cristobal said Monday. “This program is forging forward in a manner where it’s supposed to be. And a lot of pride was taken in that word ‘finish.’ And a lot of work was done from January all the way through now to make sure that finish was a real thing.

“So credit to the players, No. 1, first and foremost. They bought into what we do, which is really hard, really challenging, but it’s the right stuff. And you know what? They’re starting to see the benefits of it.”