Mario Cristobal, the Miami Hurricanes coach, made no excuses for his team’s play-calling during Saturday night’s improbable loss to Georgia Tech.
Instead of kneeling in the dying seconds of the game, Hurricanes running back Don Chaney fumbled the ball. Georgia Tech took possession with 26 seconds remaining, and quarterback Haynes King needed only a few plays to lead the Yellow Jackets to a touchdown and victory.
Miami was stunned. The rest of the college football world was shocked.
Cristobal accepted responsibility on Monday.
“I made the wrong call,” he said.
Shannon Dawson, the offensive coordinator, said he made the decision to run the ball rather than take a knee.
“What we did in the end was the wrong decision,” Dawson explained. “I called it. It’s what it is. I wish we had done things differently, but we didn’t. We must accept this reality. I’m not going to sit here and go over the procedure with you. What’s spoken on the headsets is between us, and I eventually called the play. And I can live with it. It was the incorrect thing to do.
On Monday, he swore that the team would learn from its mistakes and improve.
“You do it with honesty and transparency, go and fix all the things we can do better and realize the opportunity in front of us,” Cristobal replied. “Football is quite similar to life. We owe it to ourselves, our players, our entire company, and our own families to look each other in the eye and demand the best, the exact truth from one another so that we can go ahead.”
Miami wanted the ACC to explain why Chaney was not ruled down on the play and why the fumble call was not overturned after review. Cristobal said the school has yet to get a response.
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