Miami drops out of the Yahoo Top 10 after Mario Cristobal’s all-time coaching blunder.
Your team is up 20-17. You have a third down. The game has 35 seconds remaining. Unless there is a timeout or other break, such as a penalty, the play-clock in college is 40 seconds. Your adversary has no timeouts.
Here are your options: (1) Execute a play; (2) Kneel.
Miami and head coach Mario Cristobal went with the first option. Despite the fact that they only needed to kneel to win the game, the Hurricanes ran a play. Running back Donald Chaney fumbled the ball to Georgia Tech on a
handoff up the middle. The Yellow Jackets went 74 yards in 26 seconds to score a touchdown and win the game, 23-20, in an incredible victory that will undoubtedly go down in college athletics history as one of the most unlikely.
As Miami broke the huddle to run a play with less than 40 seconds remaining, ACC analyst Tim Hasselbeck knew it was a bad idea. “All you have to do is take a knee. You should not be passing the football. I’m not sure what Miami is up to.”Then something happened. Fumble. There have been two completions. Touchdown. The game is over.
“It needs to be said: That’s one of the biggest coaching mistakes at this level I have ever seen in my lifetime,” Hasselbeck said in a statement.
Georgia Tech’s incredible comeback capped off another outstanding day in college football. Three ACC teams remained unbeaten (it could have been four, Miami! ), including Louisville, our newest Top 10 team. We also have a new No. 1 after the unranked Sooners defeated Texas. Colorado and Deion Sanders won again (over Arizona State), Clemson’s offence is still struggling (17 points in a win over Wake Forest), and LSU barely escaped Columbia, Missouri.
Is there a better win than the Sooners’ neutral-site victory over Texas? Florida State defeated LSU and Clemson, but both teams lost their next game. Sure, Ohio State beat Notre Dame, but the Irish also lost a game on Saturday. Georgia defeated Kentucky, and North Carolina defeated South Carolina, but neither was as impressive as the Sooners’ performance in Dallas. OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for 285 yards and ran for 113 more before throwing the game-winning touchdown with 23 seconds remaining.
