MIAMI — Miami didn't play well against Georgia Tech on Saturday, but they were in a clear position to win.
The Hurricanes had the football on Georgia Tech's 30-yard line, with a 20-17 lead and under 40 seconds to go on the clock, and the Yellow Jackets didn't have a timeout remaining. A kneel down by quarterback Tyler Van Dyke would seal the game and move the Canes to a 5-0 record.
Instead, inexplicably, coach Mario Cristobal called a run play up the middle, resulting in a fumble from Don Chaney which was recovered by Georgia Tech - who proceeded to move 74 yards in 24 seconds to pull off a stunning upset.
Locked on Canes host Alex Donno broke down the loss and the decision from coach Cristobal on a postgame episode of the podcast, discussing what led to those final moments and where the team goes from here.
"This was a collective loss, a lot led up to that point," Donno said. "I can't put this 100 percent on the head coach even though, and let me be clear on this, his error was by far the worst."
Perhaps this would be easier to swallow if it was Cristobal's first time making this mistake, but back in 2018 as the head coach at Oregon he made a nearly identical blunder.
With a 31-28 lead against Stanford and under one minute to go, the 3-0 Ducks didn't take a knee to bleed out the clock despite the Cardinal only having one timeout. CJ Verdell fumbled, Stanford forced overtime with a field goal, and ended Oregon's undefeated season in overtime.
"Not going to make an excuse for it, say we should've done this or that," Cristobal said of not taking a knee after the game on Saturday. "That's it. We should've done it. Sometimes you get carried away with just, finish the game and run it. I should've stepped in and said, 'Hey, just take a knee.'"
Cristobal went 5-7 in his first year at Miami in 2022, and this loss to Georgia Tech is going to make the fight for Bowl eligibility even tougher for the Canes this season.
They have battles against No. 12 North Carolina, No. 4 Florida State, and No. 14 Louisville still on the docket as well as home games against Clemson and Virginia.
If this loss costs them a bowl game, will Miami consider buying Cristobal out and moving on? Time will tell, but these kind of blunders definitely don't fly at a program like Miami.