By: Clark Kinney
If you haven’t already heard, Miami lost to Georgia Tech this past Saturday. It was an awful loss though, not because they played particularly bad, but rather because of an awful coaching decision made by the Miami staff that ultimately cost them the win. The undefeated Miami Hurricanes were winning and looking to improve to 5-0 on the season up 20-17 with 34 seconds left in the game, only needing to take a knee. However, the coaches decided to run the ball and the running back fumbled, giving Georgia Tech the ball with 26 seconds left and no timeouts. Four quick plays later, Georgia Tech scored and won the game.
Miami had opted not to kneel the ball in every one of their first four games this year and they had won all four, but those games were not one score games like the Georgia Tech game. Miami’s head coach is Mario Cristobal, and he takes full ownership in the play call and loss. Perhaps the craziest part about all of this is that the exact same thing had happened to Coach Cristobal before. Coach Cristobal was the head coach at Oregon in 2018 when they were winning by 3 against Stanford with the ball, chose not to kneel to secure the win, ran a play, fumbled, Stanford tied the game, and then Oregon lost in overtime.
Why would you not just take a knee and secure the win? I simply do not know. Did they not have Victory Formation in the playbook? I don’t know either. What I do know is that Georgia Tech is not very good, and Miami will likely now not have a chance in making the College Football Playoff. On ESPN’s “First Take” earlier I heard one of the people say not only will they not have a chance to make the College Football Playoff, but that play call also cost the school millions of dollars because of the money that comes from winning and being a College Football Playoff contender.
If I were Miami’s athletic director, I was seriously consider firing Coach Cristobal. I would, at least have him on a short leash and tell him if you lose 2-3 more you are done. He should be undefeated right know, and that is the only reason I would most likely not fire him immediately.
Baron Media Network 