Mario Cristobal addresses decision to not kneel, costing Miami win vs. Georgia Tech

Miami had a win in hand against Georgia Tech on Saturday night until a fumble when the Hurricanes otherwise could’ve knelt out the game gave the Yellowjackets life. Two plays later, Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal was off to a postgame press conference to explain a loss and his perplexing decision to run the ball, costing his team a win.

Cristobal, after brief opening remarks, was asked immediately about the decision to hand the ball off and not take a knee with a 3-point lead on 3rd and 10 from the Georgia Tech 25. With around :30 seconds remaining and the Yellowjackets out of timeouts, a kneel would’ve ended the game, functionally.

“When the drive started, it was going to be 1:57 and we burned about 1:27 off and then it was recalibrated. Should’ve taken a timeout, right there at the end. After we got the first down and talk about two hands on the ball, but that’s not good enough. Just go and take knee. That’s it. Fumble the ball at the 25 and they 75 yards in two plays, so no excuse,” Cristobal said.

He was asked a follow up and made clear he saw in hindsight that the better part of valor was just calling a knee.

“We should’ve taken a knee,” Cristobal said.

This is also the second time a Cristobal-coached team has succumbed to a similar fate. When Cristobal was the coach at Oregon, the Ducks lost a game to Stanford that they led by a field goal in the final minute. Instead of a kneel, Cristobal called a handoff, which was fumbled, and Oregon went on to lose in overtime.

The sequence began deep in Georgia Tech territory with less than a minute to play

All the Hurricanes had to do in the final seconds was take a knee and they would have won the game. But they instead opted to run the football, fumbled, and Georgia Tech recovered. The Yellow Jackets then drove 74 yards in the final 26 seconds, thanks to a game-winning touchdown toss by quarterback Haynes King.

He connected with Georgia Tech receiver Christian Leary in the final seconds to lift the Yellow Jackets to the improbable comeback.

On top of the fumble to give Georgia Tech a chance, letting a receiver get open behind the defense as such in a crunch-time situation is also a cardinal sin.

Instead of a 20-17 win and a 5-0 record, the Hurricanes fell, 23-20, and Cristobal was left to stand at the lectern and explain how a surefire win had gone so wrong, so fast.