Miami falls to 20-point underdog Georgia Tech, snaps unbeaten streak with one second left
The 17th-ranked Miami Hurricanes came one kneel-down away —at the most, two — from escaping their worst performance of the season.
Instead, the Hurricanes ran a play, Don Chaney Jr. fumbled at the 26-yard line with 26 seconds left and Georgia Tech went 74 yards in four plays to score the game-winning touchdown for a 23-20 victory to snap UM’s four-game unbeaten streak.
“We should have taken the knee,’’ a dejected UM coach Mario Cristobal said of the ill-fated play that was run on third-and-10 when Chaney had 99 yards with 33 seconds left. “I’m not going to make an excuse for it. I should have stepped in and said, ‘Hey, take a knee.’’’
Cristobal said that when UM’s final drive started “it was going to be at 1:57 and we burned about 1:27 off and then it was recalibrated. We should’ve taken a timeout right there at the end. Thought we could get the first down. We talked about two hands on the ball but that’s not good enough. Should have told them to take a knee. That’s it. Fumbled the ball at the 25 and they went 75 yards in two plays. No excuse.”
The 20-point favorite Canes opened their Atlantic Coast Conference schedule in front of 58,045 shocked fans at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Yeah, we kind of felt that he was going to take a knee at that point,’’ Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. “He didn’t though.”
After UM’s fumble, Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King threw a 30-yard completion to Hialeah Champagnat Catholic alum Malik Rutherford on second down, then two plays connected with Christian Leary for the deciding 44-yard touchdown with one tick left.
“We didn’t play to our standard, which means we did not coach to our standard,’’ Cristobal said. “The bottom line is we’ve got to get right back to work. Everybody is down. It’s hard. It sucks. We’ve got to take it like grown men. We’ve got to get back to it and be better.’’
Miami outgained Georgia Tech 453-250 yards — 74 of those in the Yellow Jackets’ final drive.
After blowing a 10-0 lead, the Hurricanes trailed 17-10 in the final quarter before roaring back to tie it at 17 and taking the lead on a 39-yard field goal by Andy Borregales with 6:23 left in the game. That put UM up 20-17.
Tyler Van Dyke, who tied a career-high with three interceptions, threw a 57-yard strike to Colbie Young before Henry Parrish ran 3 yards for the game-tying touchdown with 9:55 left.
Van Dyke finished 24 of 36 for 288 yards and one touchdown, with the three picks.
“Right now, it really sucks,” Van Dyke said. “It really does. You can’t dwell on it. You’ve got to move on.’’
When asked about the decision for Chaney to run, Van Dyke said, “At the end of the day, I’ve got to put us in a better situation. I can’t... I don’t want to speak on that. We shouldn’t have even had a situation where we had to run the clock out, take a knee. We turned the ball over three times — my fault — so I’ve got to be better.”
His top receiver Xavier Restrepo set career highs with 11 catches for 139 yards. It was Restrepo’s third 100-yard game of the season. And Chaney finished with 106 yards.
UM freshman tight end Riley Williams caught his first touchdown of his career late in the thrid quarter to put UM up 10-0.
From there, Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-1) scored 17 straight points, capitalizing on two of Van Dyke’s picks for a touchdown and field goal.
Van Dyke, along with the rest of the UM offense, had his weakest half of the season to begin the game — before it got worse in the second half. With 3:25 left in the second quarter he threw his first interception since the Sept. 1 opener. LaMiles Brooks picked off Van Dyke in the end zone and returned it 25 yards. But the Yellow Jackets’ offensive inadequacy netted only 3 yards.
Van Dyke then led the Hurricanes to its longest drive of the half: 65 yards on 12 plays that culminated with a 30-yard field goal by Andy Borregales to put the Canes up 3-0.
Van Dyke finished the first half 14 of 23 for 113 yards, with the pick. UM had 213 yards at that point, 100 of them rushing (50 by Don Chaney Jr.).
The Canes’ defense was strong in the initial half, holding the Jackets to 24 yards passing and 37 rushing. Linebacker Kiko Mauigoa intercepted Haynes King at 7:49 of the second quarter, but UM’s ensuing drive ended with Van Dyke’s pick.
Said Mauigoa: “I’m still kind of in shock that it happened. We execute what the coach tells us to do and it didn’t go our way. We know it’s just not about one play. There were a lot of other plays that we could have done better and that’s what we gotta fix.’’
UM, which failed on a fourth-down attempt near midfield in the first quarter, had two first-half drives end with punts, the one on downs, one with the interception and finally with the field goal.
Georgia Tech’s first-half drives ended four times with punts and once with the interception.
The Canes will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina next Saturday to face the No. 14 Tar Heels, who crushed Syracuse 40-7 and are 5-0. ESPN will broadcast the game at 7:30 p.m.
The next seven regular-season games will all be ACC matchups, making every one integral if the Canes are to vie for a spot in the league title game Dec. 2 at Bank of America Field in Charlotte. The conference has eliminated the former Coastal and Atlantic Divisions, meaning the top two league teams in ACC winning percentage will meet for the ACC championship.
This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 11:49 PM.
