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Miami head coach Mario Cristobal had the college football world collectively scratching its head on Saturday night after deciding against kneeling the ball in the final minutes of the Hurricanes’ game against Georgia Tech.
Miami was in the lead and could have run out the clock on third down with 34 seconds left, but instead of kneeling the ball, the team decided to call a run.
Then, disaster struck.
The Hurricanes handed the ball to Donald Chaney Jr., who ended up fumbling the ball and Georgia Tech recovered. Moments later, Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King found Christian Leary for a 44-yard game-winning touchdown with one second remaining.
It was a jaw-dropping sequence.
“That’s one of the biggest coaching mistakes at this level that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
Miami could've taken a knee and closed out Georgia Tech. Instead … disaster struck 😳 pic.twitter.com/I5vAvtn78p
— ESPN (@espn) October 8, 2023
After the game, Cristobal offered up some insight into his thought process.
“When the drive started, it was going to be at 1:57 and we could burn about 1:27 off and then it was recalibrated,” Cristobal said, via Inside The U. “We should have taken a timeout there at the end. We thought he could get the first down and we talked about two hands on the ball, but that isn’t good enough. That’s it, we fumbled the ball and they went 75 yards in two plays.
“There is no excuse.”
It was a brutal, heartbreaking loss for the Hurricanes that will almost assuredly knock them out of the upcoming AP Top 25 Poll for Week 7.
The Hurricanes need to wipe their memories clean, however, because a showdown with the No. 14 North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill is coming up on Saturday, October 14.
