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Georgia Tech coach Brent Key told reporters he thought Miami would “go to its knees” on offense with a 20-17 lead and the clock ticking down to 35 seconds in the fourth quarter Saturday night.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal agreed, admitting to reporters, “We should have taken a knee.”
Instead, Miami’s second-year head coach committed what ESPN announcer Tim Hasselbeck described as “the worst coaching decision” he had ever seen on a football field.
Miami had the ball, Hurricanes running back Don Chaney lost a fumble and a review upheld the turnover.
The Yellow Jackets then went 74 yards in 24 seconds, highlighted by Haynes King’s game-winning touchdown pass of 44 yards to Christian Leary with two seconds left. Final score: Georgia Tech 23, Miami 20.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal later admitted to reporters: ‘We should have taken a knee’
Christian Leary and teammates celebrate after his game-winning touchdown against Miami
Afterwards, ESPN cameras caught Matt Lee on the sidelines in downtown Miami as he appeared to say, “What the fuck are we doing?”
“I’m not going to make any excuses for it, saying we should have done this or that,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said of not taking a knee. ‘That is it. We should have done it. Sometimes you get carried away and just finish the game and run it. I should have stepped in and said, ‘Hey, just take a knee.’
Amazingly, Cristobal fell into a similar trap when he coached at Oregon in 2018.
With Stanford leading 31-28 with less than a minute to play, Cristobal could have run the clock down to 16 seconds by kneeling and eventually kicking on fourth down. Instead, he ran the ball, leading to a lost fumble, a tied field game and an overtime loss for the Cardinal.
On Saturday, the Hurricanes (4-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) paid a huge price for Cristobal’s blunder.
King was incomplete under pressure on the first down of the final drive and then connected with Malik Rutherford for a 30-yard gain. Rutherford was inbounds and the clock was running until King spiked the ball with 10 seconds left. The scoreboard showed that Georgia Tech was out of timeouts; the play-by-play of the game suggested the Yellow Jackets might still have one.
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key, center, celebrates with players after the dramatic win
Kyle Kennard #9 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts after a fumble in the fourth
Anyway, then came the miracle.
King — perhaps channeling his inner Doug Flutie from another deep throw that stunned Miami in 1984 — rolled to his right, waited and Leary got well behind two Miami defenders. The throw hit Leary in stride. He slid into the end zone as a few pieces of debris rained down from the stands.
“I felt it as soon as it left my fingers,” King said.
The Hurricanes had a six-sided try on the final play of the match but were stopped near midfield.
Tyler Van Dyke threw for 288 yards but was intercepted three times for Miami. Xavier Restrepo caught 12 passes for 144 yards for the Hurricanes, who got a rushing score from Henry Parrish.
King and Jamal Haynes had rushing touchdowns in just over 2 minutes for the Yellow Jackets in the third quarter. Georgia Tech’s new-management defense — the team elevated Kevin Sherrer to defensive coordinator after a loss to Bowling Green last week — frustrated Miami for much of the night, but somehow eventually got the takeaway it needed had.
Amazingly, Cristobal fell into a similar trap when he coached at Oregon against Stanford in 2018
Miami defeated Georgia Tech 454-250, had 23 first downs to the Yellow Jackets’ 12, and none of that mattered. Georgia Tech found a way, and Van Dyke had no one to blame but himself — even when he was asked after the game if he was surprised that offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson didn’t call for a kneel.
“We rely on our offensive coordinator,” Restrepo said. ‘We trust each other.’
Miami had scored in all 16 quarters it had played in its first four games, entering the night as one of three national teams to score at least 38 points in every game this season. But it wasn’t until the final play of the half, a 30-yard field goal by Miami’s Andy Borregales, that both sides scored.
Georgia Tech was up 17-10 early in the fourth on a field goal shortly after Van Dyke’s third interception. Miami scored the next 10 points of the game.
Borregales was good from 39 yards midway through the fourth to give Miami the lead, and the Hurricanes put themselves in position to win — but somehow managed to lose.