The Miami Hurricanes should have been celebrating a fifth-straight victory. Instead, coach Mario Cristobal was left to try and defend the indefensible.
In the end, he didn’t even try. Such was the magnitude of his coaching blunder, with the Hurricanes leading Georgia Tech 20-17 on Sunday with less than a minute on the clock and a win seemingly wrapped up.
With Georgia Tech having already used up all of its timeouts, all Miami had to do was kneel the ball out.
Instead, Cristobal bizarrely decided to run the ball on third-and-10, running the risk of fumbling the ball and handing possession back to Georgia Tech.Of course, that’s exactly what happened. Running back Don Chaney Jr. lost possession and while there were suggestions he was down on contact, the play was upheld after an official review.
It meant Miami turned the ball over and Georgia Tech then went to work, moving the chains before Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King scrambled and found wide receiver Christian Leary for the go-ahead touchdown.
Georgia Tech made sure not to make the same mistake Cristobal made, kneeling on the extra-point attempt instead of risking a blocked extra point and giving the Hurricanes just two seconds to work with off the restart.The Georgia Tech defence subsequently held firm, condemning the Hurricanes to a stunning defeat and Cristobal to admit he made a horrible judgement call.
“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 post-game.
“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.”“We should have taken the knee,” Cristobal eventually conceded.
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