Mario Cristobal’s Miami was the final school selected for the new 12-team College Football Playoff in the 2025 season. There was much chatter about the Hurricanes’ playoff worthiness, but they ultimately advanced to the College Football Playoff National Championship by defeating Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Ole Miss in previous rounds.
Miami will be looking for its sixth national title and first since the 2001 season when it faces Fernando Mendoza’s Indiana on Monday at Miami’s home stadium, Hard Rock Stadium in Florida.
Mario Cristobal Looks Back on High School Years With Fernando Mendoza Sr. in Mind
Cristobal and Mendoza’s father, Fernando Mendoza Sr., were high school teammates at Christopher Columbus High School in the 1980s. It is obviously getting a lot of discussion ahead of the title game.
Cristobal recalled those memories during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday.
“Yeah, that’s a great, great team right there,” Cristobal said. “Great offensive line. Fernando Mendoza Sr. was a great player. You see Alex Mirabal there, No. 65. He was a great player, man. A lot of them, some of those other guys were some crazy rounders, but they were really good players as well. But we won the district. We won the sectionals.”
Mendoza Sr. and Cristobal played No. 1 Southridge in the state championship, which included a couple of future Hurricanes there: Robert Bailey and Herbert James.
“We actually played against the No. 1 team in the state and beat them,” Cristobal said. “You’d be proud. We punt. They muffed it. We recovered it. Kick a field goal, three-nothing. Carlos Huerta drives it through the uprights. And then we got beat after that against Carol City. And unbelievable memories, man. It really, really was.”
Cristobal graduated from Columbus in 1988 and went on to play offensive line at Miami, where he helped the Hurricanes capture national championships in 1989 and 1991. Meanwhile, Mendoza Sr. pursued a career in medicine and is now an emergency physician who also serves as a medical director within the Nicklaus Children’s Health System.
Cristobal was asked whether the two have remained close over the years, and he had a candid confession.
“I mean, not really,” Cristobal said. “But when you go to Columbus, that brotherhood is extremely strong. We have crossed paths before. Certainly, he was an excellent football player and has become such a prominent member of the community down here in the medical field. And certainly all the respect in the world for him and his family.”
Keeping aside memories, Cristobal is now preparing to game-plan against Mendoza in the title game. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner has delivered elite performances throughout the season and is viewed as the favorite to be selected first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
During his Monday press conference, Cristobal described Mendoza as the complete package at quarterback. Mendoza currently ranks No. 2 in the PFSN’s CFB QB Impact Metric.
