Miami could have taken a knee to beat Georgia Tech. Instead, Hurricanes ran, fumbled and lost.
There's blowing a game, and then there's what No. 17 Miami did Saturday night.
Miami had the ball on Georgia Tech's 30-yard line, leading 20-17 with just under 40 seconds to go — and the Yellow Jackets had no timeouts left. Conventional wisdom would suggest the Hurricanes take a knee and move on to 5-0.
Instead, the Hurricanes ran the ball. Just before he went down, Donald Chaney Jr. lost the ball and Georgia Tech recovered, giving the Yellow Jackets a chance with 26 seconds left.
On the second play of the drive, Haynes King found Malik Rutherford for a 30-yard pass that moved the ball to the Miami 44-yard line with 15 seconds left. The next play was an incomplete pass, so Georgia Tech had one play to get in the end zone. That's when King scrambled out of the pocket and tossed a rainbow throw to Christian Leary, who caught it at the 6-yard line and took it into the end zone to give Georgia Tech a stunning 23-20 lead with one second left, an ending you have to see to believe.
The Hurricanes were able to run one last play, which was a lateral parade that was unsuccessful, resulting in Miami's first loss of the season in a questionable finish.
Miami head coach admits team should've taken a knee
Postgame, Miami head coach Mario Cristobal admitted he made a mistake.
"We should have taken a knee," Cristobal told reporters postgame.
The second-year Hurricanes coach added he should've taken a timeout before the fumble.
"Thought we'd get the first down, and we talked about two hands on the ball, but that's not good enough. Just should've told him to take a knee. That's it. Fumbled the ball at the 25, and they went 75 yards in two plays. No excuse, Cristobal said.
Miami loss not first time Mario Cristobal team didn't take a knee
The questionable decision to not take a knee isn't something new to Cristobal, as it's the same exact way he lost a game when he was coach at Oregon.
In 2018, 3-0 Oregon was up 31-28 against Stanford with under a minute left. The Cardinal only had one timeout left, and rather than take the knee to bleed the clock, the Ducks ran the ball and it resulted in a fumble recovered by Stanford with 51 seconds left. Stanford was able to kick the game-tying field goal to send it into overtime, and later won in overtime 38-31.