Mario Cristobal made a huge mistake in Miami’s loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday night. But it appears as if the Hurricanes were also screwed by a bad call from the officials.
Rather than kneel out the clock on third and fourth down with his Hurricanes up 20-17 on the Yellow Jackets in the final minute, Miami elected to run the ball. Donald Chaney Jr. lost a fumble, which was recovered by Georgia Tech. As if that weren’t improbable enough, the Yellow Jackets then drove 75 yards in 25 seconds for a winning touchdown. All of that happened even though Georgia Tech didn’t have any timeouts left.
Though Georgia Tech got the 23-20 win, a replay showed that Chaney was down before he lost the critical fumble.
Was Miami’s RB down on the critical fumble in the final minute? pic.twitter.com/cYEeRdVQXR
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) October 8, 2023
Chaney’s left elbow was down before he was stripped of the ball. The fumble never should have counted, and Miami should have been able to end the game on fourth down.
None of this erases Cristobal’s bad decision to run a play rather than take a knee. But this shows the Hurricanes received bad luck from the officials on top of the bad play call.
