MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami should take a knee. Instead, Georgia Tech suffered a catastrophic loss, turning a huge Hurricanes turnover into a last-second miracle.
Haynes King threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Christian Leary with two seconds left and Miami turned the ball over with the game almost won, Georgia Tech defeated the 17th-ranked Hurricanes 23-20 on Saturday night.
The Yellow Jackets gained 74 yards in 24 seconds, just after the Hurricanes had the option to take a knee and likely run out the clock, win the game and remain undefeated. Instead, Don Chaney dropped the ball — Miami thought he had fallen, the referees disagreed — and the Yellow Jackets pulled off a stunning run.
“We should take a knee,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.
“We thought they were taking a knee,” Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said.
The Hurricanes (4-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) did not, and at great cost. King failed to complete the game under pressure on his first drive of the final drive, then connected with Malik Rutherford for a 30-yard gain. Rutherford served the inbounds and the timer ran until King spiked the ball with 10 seconds left. The scoreboard showed Georgia Tech had no timeouts remaining; the specifics of the game suggested the Yellow Jackets might still have that player.
Anyway, a miracle happened.
King — perhaps channeling his inner Doug Flutie on another deep throw that shocked Miami in 1984 — rolled to his right and waited, Leary well behind two Miami defenders. Leary threw the ball in his stride, and as he slid into the end zone, some debris rained down from the stands.
“I felt it as soon as it left my fingers,” King said.
The Hurricanes had six lateral attempts on the final play of the game but were stopped near midfield.
Tyler Van Dyke threw for 288 yards and three interceptions for Miami. Xavier Restrepo caught 12 passes for 144 yards for the Hurricanes, and Henry Parrish rushed for a score.
King and Jamal Haynes scored rushing touchdowns for the Yellow Jackets in just over 2 minutes in the third quarter. The defense under Georgia Tech’s new front office — the team promoted Kevin Scherer to defensive coordinator after last week’s loss to Bowling Green — frustrated Miami for much of the night, but ended with a Somehow got the needed lesson.
The Miami Heat beat Georgia Tech 454-250 with 23 first downs to the Yellow Jackets’ 12, but none of that mattered. Georgia Tech found a way that VanDyke didn’t blame anyone but himself — even when asked after the game if he was surprised offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson didn’t ask for a kneel.
“We trust our offensive coordinator,” Restrepo said. “We trust each other.”
The Miami Heat have scored in all 16 quarters of their first four games and have become one of three teams in the country to score at least 38 points in every game this season. But no scoring was scored until Miami’s Andy Borregales’ 30-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
Georgia Tech took a 17-10 lead early in the fourth quarter on a field goal shortly after Van Dyke’s third interception. Miami scored the game’s next 10 points.
Borregales’ 39-yard performance gave Miami the lead midway through the fourth quarter, and the Hurricanes were poised to win but somehow lost.
“I should have stepped in and said, ‘Hey, get down on your knees,'” Cristobal said.
focus
Georgia Tech: Haynes King averaged nearly 300 yards through the air on the night, but Miami held him to 151 yards after completing 12 of 25 passes and throwing two interceptions.
Miami: The bye week remains a huge problem for Miami to address. Miami is now 2-7 since 2017 when it plays the regular season after a bye week.
influence of polls
Miami will go down. The only question is whether the hurricane will disappear entirely.
Alumni Night
The game was played by former Hurricanes linebacker Jessie Armstead, a former national champion at Miami and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame who later became a five-time NFL Pro Bowler. Armstead is a special assistant to New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen; the Giants are in town Sunday to face the Miami Dolphins.
Previous
Georgia Tech: Hosts Boston College on Oct. 21.
Miami: Oct. 14 at North Carolina.
——
