Disastrous decision could haunt Miami football. Will the Canes shrug it off and rally?
Football teams are known to have a “24-hour rule’’ to allow them to celebrate or sulk after games.
What happened to the Miami Hurricanes Saturday night might take a lifetime to forget.
Their new challenge: Shrug it off by Saturday, when the Canes travel to No. 12 North Carolina to take on the undefeated Tar Heels.
It won’t be easy.
The Hurricanes blew a 20-17 lead which would have stood when the game ended if they had taken a knee, in what is known as the victory formation, on their final offensive play with 33 seconds left at the snap. Instead, Miami opted to run a play and tailback Don Chaney Jr. fumbled the ball — a call that was reviewed and confirmed but could have gone the other way as it appeared his elbow might have hit the ground before he lost the ball. Georgia Tech took over, completed a 30-yard pass on second down, then scored two plays later on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Haynes King to Christian Leary to win the game 23-20.
Analytics from ESPN gave Miami (4-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) a 99.9-percent chance to win with just over a minute remaining.
The Canes dropped from No. 17 to 25 in the AP Top 25 poll and fell out of the USA Today LBM Coaches poll to first team “receiving votes’’ — essentially No. 26.
“That’s one of the biggest coaching mistakes at this level that I have ever seen in my lifetime,” ACC Network broadcast analyst Tim Hasselbeck said. “Miami could’ve taken a knee and closed out Georgia Tech. Instead ... disaster struck.’’
After the Yellow Jackets (3-3, 2-1) won, Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said he thought the Canes would take a knee. He also said this: “What did Will Ferrell say in ‘Old School?’ I think I just blacked out.’’
‘No excuse’
Mario Cristobal, who gave a head-scratching explanation before eventually telling reporters, “Should have told them to take a knee... That’s it.... No excuse,’’ is in his second year as UM head coach and until Saturday had led the Canes to four consecutive wins and an expected fifth win against the 20-point underdog Yellow Jackets. Now he and his staff are being slammed nationally, with some noting that Cristobal in 2018 did the same thing when he coached Oregon in a game against Stanford — Oregon fumbled, Stanford recovered and went on to win.
Will his players keep the faith? Will the dozens of top-rated recruits invited to watch what was supposed to be a victory and turned into an inexplicable collapse, stay interested?
The Hurricanes that spoke after the game were clearly dazed, but said the right things.
“It was a tough loss,’’ said receiver Xavier Restrepo, who finished with a career-best 123 receiving yards on a career-high 12 catches. “We just have to find out what we did wrong, execute better and just try to be 1-0 next week.’’
Restrepo, when asked if he was surprised when the Canes ran the ball instead of taking a knee, said, “No. We trust our offensive coordinator [Shannon Dawson]. We trust each other. Again, we didn’t execute.’’
Restrepo said quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who threw a career-high-tying three interceptions, was “a winner, so at that end of the day, he’s not going to be happy about it. He’s obviously a little hurt about this one, but we just got to bounce back.’’
Cornerback Jaden Davis said the players “hurt.’’
“I mean, any L on the schedule we’re going to be hurt,’’ Davis said. “But we gotta get back to Greentree [Field] and get some work in. We have to just keep going, day by day, and that starts with [Sunday], coming in and watching film and realizing the mistakes we made. We hurt right now. Twenty-four hour rule.
“...I feel this team is strong — strong-willed. And they don’t like the taste Georgia Tech left in our mouth.’’
Linebacker Kiko Mauigo conceded he was “still kind of in shock that it happened,’’ but that the players “execute what the coach tells us to do and it didn’t go our way. We know it’s just not about one play.’’
The Canes outgained Georgia Tech 453 to 250 yards — 74 of those in the Yellow Jackets’ final drive.
Chaney’s night
Chaney, who had 99 rushing yards going into the play in which he fumbled, ended with a career-best 106 yards, but was distraught after the game.
“It’s one mistake,’’ Restrepo said. “He had a great game all game. That’s the reason we were pounding the ball. We’re behind [No.] 2 and we just have to execute better. That’s it.”
Said Van Dyke: “We love everyone on the team. The sun comes up tomorrow. I turned the ball over three times, like I said. He had that one time. We’ve just got to put ourselves in better positions at the end of the day. He’ll be OK. He’s going to have to move on from it. We all do.”
The quarterback spoke about the “seven games left in the season’’ and how the Canes must “move on from it and play better football.’’
“We have a lot of games left,’’ Van Dyke. “Have to learn from it...’’
Mauigoa blamed everyone.
“It’s not one person’s fault. It’s the whole team,’’ he said. “We lose, everybody loses. It’s not Don’s fault. It’s everybody’s fault. We just have got to keep our head up.’’
Does it help going on the road against a quality opponent that crushed Syracuse 40-7 Saturday? The Tar Heels are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.
To be honest, as we’ve seen today,’’ Davis said, “every opponent in the ACC is quality.
“Georgia Tech is a great team, high-powered offense. They came and did what they were supposed to do. They won the game. So, UNC, Georgia Tech, whoever is after that, we’ve just got to treat the same and get back to the drawing board.’’
