The University of Miami has been eliminated from College Football Playoff contention because of Mario Cristobal’s decision to run the ball with less than one minute left in Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech. It was one of the worst displays of clock management in college football history.
Down by three with 42 seconds left, the Yellowjackets did not have any timeouts or the ball. All the Hurricanes needed to do to escape with a win was take a knee.
Cristobal decided to run the ball.
Miami fumbled. Georgia Tech recovered and proceeded to win the game in walk-off fashion.
Running back Donald Chaney Jr. was the one who fumbled.
However, slow-motion video of the play in question has sparked a debate. Chaney’s knee might have been down before the ball was knocked loose. Here’s a closer look:
To question whether Chaney’s was down or not is a rather ironic discourse. He never should have been put in that position because Mario Cristobal should have called a different play.
Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke should have been tasked with taking a knee on purpose. His knee would have been down without debate, because that is how the intentional clock-killing play is designed.
Instead, we are having to wonder if Chaney’s knee was down after a Miami loss.
Mario Cristobal’s decision to run the ball was dumbfounding.
His postgame press conference only made things worse. Cristobal threw a player under the bus and admitted that his team should have just kneeled out the clock to win.
To make matters even more discouraging and confusing, Cristobal’s past shows a similar trend.
A very similar thing happened when he was at Oregon in 2018.
The Ducks had the ball up by three with less than a minute left. Cristobal chose to run the ball instead of taking a knee. His running back fumbled, Stanford recovered, Oregon went on to lose.
Because the Cardinal had a timeout, and with it already being second down, Cristobal’s decision to run the ball made more sense at the time. He couldn’t run out the clock with a knee like he could have on Saturday night against Georgia Tech.
Still, though… Oregon would have had to punt. Stanford would have gotten the ball back with less than 10 seconds.
And then there is Miami’s more recent history.
- Miami was up 35 on Miami (Oh.) during Week 1. It got the ball back with less than a minute left.
- A pair of kneel downs would have run out the clock.
Cristobal ran the ball.
- Miami was up 48-33 against Texas A&M in Week 2. It got the ball back with 44 seconds left.
- A single kneel down would have run out the clock.
Cristobal ran the ball.
- Miami was up 48-7 against Bethune Cookman in Week 3. It got the ball back with 1:19 left.
- A pair of kneel downs would have run out the clock.
Cristobal ran the ball.
- Miami was up 41-7 against Temple in Week 4. It got the ball back with 1:42 left.
- Taking a knee to kill as much clock as possible was the safe move.
Can you guess what Cristobal did next? Yep. He ran the ball.
Unbelievable. Somebody needs to teach Cristobal how to take a knee.