CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Mario Cristobal is not a jewelry guy. Doesn’t wear any. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t possess a bunch of shiny, sparkling things.

Inside Cristobal’s office at Miami, there are at least a dozen of his rings on display. Rings from when he was a player for the Hurricanes. Rings from when he was an assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama. Rings from his time as coach at Oregon. He’s one of only nine current head coaches with multiple conference titles at what until this year was called the Power Five level, after guiding Oregon to a pair of Pac-12 crowns before coming home to Miami.

He won’t wear the next ring that comes his way, either. But he wants it. Badly.

“It’s an unbelievable, addicting feeling that you crave every second while you work,” Cristobal said of those ring-worthy victories. “Not necessarily because of the actual hardware, because I don’t wear any. It’s because of the moments, the accomplishments, the goal setting, the benchmarks that just keep the program on a certain trajectory.”

Miami hasn’t had that moment yet under Cristobal. In Year 3 of his time as coach of the Hurricanes, he truly believes the program is getting closer. The Hurricanes open the season ranked No. 19 in the AP Top 25, were picked third in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason poll, have the league’s preseason player of the year in transfer quarterback Cam Ward and have a roster transformed by tons of recruiting successes since Cristobal came back to his alma mater.

Now, it’s time to put pieces together.

“At our place we say how you do anything is how you do everything,” Cristobal said. “Whether it be the classroom, the community, how you are at home with your family, how you are in the community with people, how you are in a locker room, on the road, how you are when things are going well or when they’re not going so well and you face adversity. Greatness is being the absolute best you can be all the time. It’s a way of life.”

The rings show that he’s right. He led a turnaround at FIU, led a turnaround at Oregon, and — he believes — is in the midst of another at Miami.

“We have been working really hard to get to a point where our expectations for ourselves continue to grow,” Cristobal said. “We want those. We welcome those.”

Ward the leader

Ward has energized Miami without taking a snap yet. The Hurricanes still have Emory Williams, who played well in his opportunities at quarterback last season for Miami, but the offense is engineered to run through Ward.

Ward said he’s already clicked nicely with his new head coach.

“I’m already a confident person,” Ward said. “But we have a head coach like that who is going to instill that in not only yourself but the whole team, offense and defense. It’s going to help us later in the season.”

More transfer keys

A pair of big-time transfer portal additions to watch: former Oregon State running back Damien Martinez and former Washington safety Mishael Powell.

Martinez ran for 2,167 yards in two seasons with the Beavers. Powell was a starter for the Huskies. Probably isn’t a coincidence that those two players — and Ward, too — all came from some of Cristobal’s rival schools from his Pac-12 days at Oregon.

Restrepo chasing history

Xavier Restrepo enters this season 283 receiving yards away from 2,000 in his Miami career. If he gets there, he’d be the 10th Hurricane ever to do that — joining a list that includes Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne, Michael Irvin and Lamar Thomas.

Moss has the Miami record: 2,547. Restrepo needs 830 to tie him and finished last season with 1,092 yards.

Kicking game strong

Kicker Andres Borregales is back for his senior season and should continue his climb up Miami’s all-time scoring list.

Borregales was brilliant in 2023, connecting on 22 of 26 field-goal tries. He’s 56 for 67 on those in his Miami career and has 289 points through three seasons.

Michael Badgley (403) and Carlos Huerta (397) are Miami’s all-time leaders in points. Borregales might have a shot of chasing down their marks this season.

The schedule

There might be a real argument for a “state championship” in the Sunshine State this year, since 2024 will mark only the fourth time in the last 20 seasons that Miami, Florida and Florida State will all play one another; the Hurricanes open in Gainesville against the Gators on Aug. 31. Florida State comes to Miami Gardens on Oct. 26.

Other games of note: home against Virginia Tech on Sept. 27, the return of former coach Manny Diaz when Duke visits on Nov. 2, and a finale at Syracuse on Nov. 30.

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MIAMI – Firefighters found a person dead in an efficiency used as a short-term rental after extinguishing a fire on Sunday morning in Miami.

Firefighters responded to the house shortly before 2 a.m., at 3056 SW 13 St., in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. They controlled the fire within about 10 minutes.

The front windows of the main house were cracked. Two men used tools and plywood to block access to the main door. The backyard was full of burned debris from the efficiency.

A woman who asked not to be identified told Local 10 News Reporter Samiar Nefzi she was supposed to have been at the short rental with her two children, but she decided not to and left.

She said the words of a police officer made her feel lucky: “If you would have been there … you wouldn’t have made it out.”

Miami detectives were investigating the case and asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin addressed the city’s recent cyber attack on Sunday during This Week In South Florida.

There was an air of mystery after City Hall closed from Aug. 5 to Aug. 9. There was a computer network system security breach. A ransomware attack included an anonymous message claiming none of it was personal.

The city’s Information Technology team notified local and federal authorities with the support of the city’s administration. Galvin said IT has been working hard and focused on installing antipiracy software.

“They are going computer by computer, department by department,” Galvin said.

The city’s site announced the 911 call center was operational and the hack did not impact early voting for the primary elections. There were other issues with payments and online services.

Galvin said it remained unclear what data was compromised, but the ransom demand for city data was clear.

“The city is being extorted,” Galvin said.

Florida law prohibits cities from making ransom payments. Galvin said the insurance company that services the city had yet to communicate with them and the issue had yet to come up to the city council.

“I have asked to see the actual policy. I haven’t been provided a copy of it yet,” Galvin said adding he hopes to get it on Monday.

Before the disruption of operations, the city’s mayor suffered a breach himself. North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme, campaigning for re-election in November, told Axios on Wednesday that hackers had accessed his Gmail accounts and had information about his passport, bank accounts, credit cards, and even private images — that were not nudes.

“That’s something that I have never done, take nude pictures of me,” Desulme told Axios.

The city’s latest update:

• “Application status updates for those previously submitted online are unavailable.”

• The Neighborhood Services Department welcomes walk-in visits, phone service, and e-mail at nsd@northmiamifl.gov, but updates about historic information about properties were unavailable.

• Parks and Recreation was only accepting cash payments in-person at the community center at 1600 NE 126 St.

• Passport services through the city clerk were postponed

WATCH THE TWISF EPISODE