Every time Dennis Lavelle watches the University of Miami’s offense during the College Football Playoffs, he can’t help but think back to his team at Columbus High School in Miami. Lavelle, who spent 50 years as a high school football coach and now lives in Stuart, was the head coach at Columbus when Mario Cristobal, Alex Mirabal and Fernando Mendoza Sr. were offensive linemen for the Explorers in the mid-1980s.
Their roads will intersect again in the CFP Championship Game on Jan. 19 when top-ranked Indiana plays No. 10 Miami. Cristobal is the Hurricanes coach, Mirabal is Miami’s offensive line coach and Mendoza Sr. is the father of Indiana’s Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza. The latter also is a Columbus graduate.
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“It’s just really cool,” Lavelle said. “Mendoza’s dad was a teammate of Mario and Mirabal’s. All three were on the same team and here we are, I don’t know, 35 years later, and they’re all in the national championship. There are five players from Columbus between the two schools. It’s great.
“All three of them were great kids, great students. They were good players and great kids, which is so typical of a Columbus kid. They’ve had so many successful kids, it’s crazy.”
Lavelle’s reason for thinking back to his Columbus teams when watching Miami goes far beyond his familiarity with the coaching staff, though.
Miami’s identity of strength in the trenches is exactly the way Lavelle’s Columbus teams were built.
“I think (Cristobal) did it different at Miami,” Lavelle said. “It sounds a little arrogant and I don’t know if it even crossed his mind consciously. But our teams (at Columbus) were good. What we had was no skill kids, but on the offensive and defensive line we had at least a dozen D-I players. You turn on the TV and they’re talking about him building from inside out and I wonder if it ever crossed his mind that’s how we won in high school. It sounds arrogant but that’s how we did it because that’s all we had.
“We lined up in the I (formation). We had some guys at QB, but they were handing off. We’d score 10 points. One year we went 8-2 and gave up 39 points. Do the math.”
Lavelle thinks that Miami’s offensive style is difficult to prepare for because it’s different.
“With everyone else winning by throwing it, it is frustrating they just ram it down your throat,” he said. “And then when you pass it, they have all day.”
Cristobal has remained close to Lavelle throughout his coaching career, even calling him when he’s changed jobs.
Cristobal flew Lavelle and his two sons to College Station for the first round of the College Football Playoff. Lavelle will be at the Championship Game at Hard Rock Stadium.
And while he does have connections to both teams, Lavelle made it clear that he will root for the Hurricanes.
“Miami. I lived there for too long not to root for them,” Lavelle said.