Paul Finebaum calls Miami not calling timeout one of the most inexcuseable decisions in the history of college football
Miami had a 5-0 start in the bag until they didn’t in their unbelievable loss to Georgia Tech this weekend. With the way they fumbled the bag, Paul Finebaum went all in on Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes for shooting themselves in the foot.
Finebaum had all kinds of criticism for Cristobal and Miami for not taking a knee on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Sunday. Had they done so, they would have avoided a stunning loss in their first conference game of the season which is why, to Finebaum, it was a decision that’s going to go down as an all-time bad one.
“As far as Mario Cristobal, I think we all agree he’s a really good coach and all the things we always say before we say ‘but’. But – that’s one of the most inexcusable decisions in the history of college football,” said Finebaum.
Finebaum continued to pile on Cristobal at that point. In his eyes, he sees a quality coach who should have known much better. He also sees a coach who should have had a better answer for the indefensible blunder after the game.
“This wasn’t just some vagabond coach. I mean this is Mario Cristobal who has now had two of the plush jobs in college football,” said Finebaum. “What’s so ridiculous is that he had things going. I don’t know how much he threw away with that.”
“Frankly, his explanation was even worse than his lack of attention during the game,” Finebaum added. “I mean there’s no explanation other than utter stupidity. How can you not be plugged into that? I mean he’s the head football coach.”
With under a minute to go, Miami could have kneeled to run out the clock and called it a day. Instead, Donald Chaney Jr. coughed up a fumble that gave possession back to the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech, who lost to Bowling Green by 11 just last week, then responded with a wild four-play, 74-yard drive. That run was capped with a winning 44-yard touchdown pass in the final seconds to win 23-20.
Considering all things, there’s simply no excuse for Miami to be sitting at 4-1 and at No. 25 in the AP Poll after an eight-spot slide on the Sunday after playing GT. That’s because, in Finebaum’s words, the Hurricanes should have a coach who was much smarter than what he showed to end their latest matchup.
“That’s the most fundamental thing,” said Finebaum. “I mean every high school coach in America knows that. You don’t have to make ten million dollars a year to be that stupid.”