Perhaps every football coach’s favorite offensive formation is something called the Victory Formation. Every coach but Mario Cristobal of the University of Miami. At least that’s what it seemed like last Saturday, when Miami had a three-point lead and the ball with 33 seconds left against Georgia Tech, who had no time outs left. Which, unless it’s fourth down, is when you call Victory Formation, when the quarterback takes the snap and a knee while the offensive line huddles around. That, in this case, would have effectively ended the game and secured Miami’s win and continued their undefeated season.
Unfortunately for Hurricane fans, that’s not what happened. Instead, quarterback Tyler Van Dyke handed the ball off to running back Don Chaney who fumbled the ball. Georgia Tech recovered and went 74 yards in 24 seconds, including a 44-yard touchdown pass with one second left to give Georgia Tech a three-point win. It is truly grasping defeat from the jaws of victory. A lot of things had to go wrong to play out like this. Chaney had to fumble the ball. Georgia Tech had to recover it. Then Tech needed to complete a few passes without running out the clock. Finally, there had to be a complete breakdown of Miami’s defense to allow a 44-yard reception on the final play. So there’s plenty of blame to go around. But none of that would have happened if Miami had simply taken a knee and ended the game.
Cristobal has taken a lot of heat for the bad call, which he deserves. He’s also taken ownership of the mistake. Fortunately, Miami fans are somewhat fickle, so they’ll likely move on quickly. If this had happened in Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge, Cristobal would be looking for a realtor and security detail. Some folks with money on the game may be pretty upset, as it seems this loss cost people significant winnings in multi-team parlays. Then again, that’s your own fault for gambling on college sports.
Cristobal isn’t the first or last coach or player to be criticized for how he handled the final moments of a game. All the time we see teams decide when, how, or even if they score in the final minute. For example, last night Coastal Carolina running back CJ Beasley went down at the one-yard line instead of scoring a touchdown with 52 seconds left in the game and the score tied against Appalachian State. This let them run the clock down to two seconds and kick a game winning field goal on the final play. It also meant App State couldn’t get the ball back with 50 seconds to try and tie the game – or even win with a two-point conversion. And yes, Carolina could have missed the field goal, which would have made everyone look stupid. But the end of close football games require a bit more than simple brute force. They often require strategic management and a rudimentary understanding of probabilities – some of which go against football instinct. Like score a touchdown whenever you can. It’s also a reminder that not every second in a football game is worth the same. Like, the 14th minute of a game is way less important than the 59th, no matter what anyone says. Which is why when coaches try to diffuse blame from a player who makes a mistake at the end of a game that costs them a win by saying there were lots of mistakes all game long so you can’t blame one person for the loss, it’s a nice sentiment, but patently untrue. Unfortunately, the kicker who misses the chip shot at the end is actually to blame.
Which brings us back to Miami and head coach Mario Cristobal. No matter what good he did throughout the game to put Miami in the lead, it all faded away in one bad moment, when all he had to do was make the easiest call any coach can make. It’s a reminder that in a lot of life’s pursuits, especially sports, we are judged not on our collective body of work, but a few key moments that punctuate that timeline. Not comforting if you’re in that line of work or trying to convince your kids not to get too nervous about a game. Hopefully they’ll find themselves more on the winning side of that scale. And of course, there’s a formation for moments just like that.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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