6 major mistakes, questionable coaching decisions doom Miami in last 2:30 of loss to FSU
The Miami Hurricanes had the Florida State Seminoles dead. All they had to do was convert on third-and-4 near midfield.
When that didn’t happen, all they had to do was down Lou Hedley’s punt inside Florida State’s 10-yard line and make sure they didn’t get burned for a long play. When that didn’t happen, all they had to do was hold once they got the Seminoles into a fourth-and-14. Even when they couldn’t do that, they’d have a chance to maybe pull off a miracle comeback if their own if they could get the ball back in Tyler Van Dyke’s hands with some time left for a drive.
For a long time, Miami didn’t deserve to win its annual rivalry clash with Florida State and then, somehow, it was on the brink of victory before a series of disastrous plays in the final two and a half minutes left it with a dumbfounding 31-28 loss in Tallahassee.
“We talk about in the Florida State-Miami series,” coach Manny Diaz said. “We said, You never know which play is going to matter, and all those plays mattered.”
Everything the Hurricanes (5-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) couldn’t afford to do in the waning minutes Saturday they did. They threw short of the sticks to tight end Will Mallory on third down. They blew a chance to down Hedley’s punt inside the 20, 10 or maybe even 5 and then they gave up a 59-yard pass on the first play of the possession. Miami was on the brink of victory when it forced the Seminoles (4-6, 3-4) into a fourth-and-14 with 1:08 left, but one last breakdown gave Florida State a conversion and, ultimately, a victory, with two other coaching decisions ultimately backfiring.
Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis completed a 24-yard pass to Florida State wide receiver Andrew Parchment down at the 1-yard line. Two plays later, Travis scored on his third shot at a quarterback sneak to put the Seminoles ahead in front of a suddenly elated crowd at Doak Campbell Stadium.
The Hurricanes got the ball back with 26 seconds left — about 12 seconds less than they should’ve had because Diaz waited to call a timeout after Parchment’s catch — and no timeouts and Van Dyke couldn’t pull off his own miracle.
Their four-game winning streak in the rivalry series ended and so did their outside shot at winning the ACC, and it was because of the type of gaffes that have become all too frequent throughout Diaz’s tenure in Coral Gables.
It started with a decision — a defensible one — and Diaz decided to punt from his own 46 rather than keep his offense on the field on fourth-and-1. A first down would have essentially won the game, but Diaz trusted his Lou Groza Award-semifinalist punter to pin the Seminoles deep and his defense, which had held Florida State to just 95 yards in the second half.
Hedley’s punt was fantastic, bouncing near the 15 and rolling down toward the goal line, only the Hurricanes in coverage couldn’t down the kick before it rolled into the end zone. The Seminoles picked up 15 or so free yards off a special-teams miscue.
“It was 1 1/2. It was a longer 1 than just a 1 and in a five-point game we like making them drive the length,” Diaz said. “We had a chance to down the ball at the 1-yard line, which would’ve been a huge, huge play in the game.”
On the next play, they picked up 59 on a heave from Travis to Florida State running back Ja’Khi Douglas, who lined up in the slot and beat safety Kamren Kinchens in man-to-man coverage on a fade route with 2:08 left.
“They beat us 1-on-1 in man coverage, which they hadn’t really been able to do much of,” Diaz said.
Even with the mistakes, Miami was one play away from a win. The Seminoles ran once for 1 yard, threw an incomplete pass, false started and threw another incomplete pass, and faced fourth-and-long.
With the game on the line, the Hurricanes rushed three, had one linebacker spy on Travis and dropped eight back into coverage. Travis had no pressure around him and slung the biggest throw of the game into a gap between defensive backs Te’Cory Couch, Tyrique Stevenson, Avantae Williams and Kinchens.
“We played coverage and they had three guys out on a pass against seven guys covering, so it’s obviously very, very disappointing that they could find a window for three guys to get open against seven,” Diaz said. “That’s just a lack of execution on our part.”
A review showed Parchment was just short of the end zone and Diaz faced a dilemma: Should he let Florida State score or ask his defense to go for a miracle goal-line stand? Should he take his timeouts to try to get the ball back if the Seminoles scored or hope the Seminoles, down 28-23, would stress against the clock?
“You had to kind of get a sense for what their tempo was going to be because obviously it’s a different situation for them down by five,” Diaz said. “They couldn’t waste too much time, so there was a little bit of just kind of getting to see what their tempo was.”
Ultimately, he sort of split the difference. He waited 12 seconds to take a timeout after the review and Florida State ran its next play with 50 seconds left. The Seminoles scored on the next play — after an offside penalty — and Miami was down three with no timeouts and 26 seconds left when Van Dyke touched the ball again.
Now there was no time left for a miracle. He completed one 20-yard pass on fourth down and sprinted to the line to try to kill the clock. The freshman spiked the ball with one second left, unaware of a rule requiring at least three seconds be left on the clock for a spike.
At the end of a performance with 14 penalties and at least half a dozen dropped passes, the Hurricanes saved their sloppiest moments for last and their winning streak against Florida State is over because of it.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 8:46 PM.
