On Saturday night in South Florida the Miami Hurricanes inexplicably lost a game that was pretty much over. With under a minute left and their opponent the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets out of timeouts, the Canes ran a play, and the running back fumbled. Georgia Tech took possession and two plays later scored a game-winning touchdown with two seconds left to win 23-20.
The decision to run a play in that situation is mind-boggling and it likely cost the previously undefeated Canes a shot at the College Football Playoffs. As a shocked, bewildered and confused Canes football team stood on the sidelines, and later in the locker room trying to figure out how they’d lost a game that was over, Cristobal deflected blame.
In the aftermath of the epic mistake, Cristobal originally threw his player under the bus, when as the head coach he should’ve taken it on the proverbial chin. On Monday, after a couple days of reflection, Cristobal finally took some but not all of the ownership for the mistake during his weekly radio spot on Audacy’s AM 560 Sports WQAM.
Cristobal Says Running A Play Was Decision “WE” Shouldn’t Have Made
“There’s no way to rationalize it, Joe. It’s the wrong decision. We should’ve kneeled it and we didn’t do it. We got the first down. After that, again, there’s no way to rationalize it. It was the wrong decision. We should have taken a knee and taken it out of the player’s hands. … This entire program is based and founded on accountability. We gave ourselves a chance to win. Just gotta make the decision to take a knee, that’s it.”
But that’s the head coach’s call, and based on what the Miami players did, they were never instructed to take a knee and go into victory formation. Cristobal saying “WE” is a problem, when it’s solely on him, not his players or other coaches. He needed to say “I” at least once.
For Cristobal, We’ve Seen This Movie Before
Saturday’s brain fart wasn’t Cristobal’s first rodeo with this. That day the thenOregon Ducks then-coach decided to run the ball instead of taking a knee leading Stanford 31-28. The back fumbled, and Stanford kicked a game-tying field goal before winning in overtime.
So to say he made a mistake is being lenient, because he’s done it before. It’s no longer a mistake, it’s becomes the norm if you keep doing it, and for some odd reason Cristobal continues to do it.
Again, it was an “I” situation, because he’s the head coach.