WATCH: Miami’s Mario Cristobal declines obvious winning kneel, then Georgia Tech launches miracle 44-yard TD

Georgia Tech beat No. 17 Miami 23-20 Saturday evening thanks to an improbable last-second touchdown pass — that the Yellow Jackets shouldn’t even have been able to try. With 10 seconds left on the clock, Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King took a snap from the shotgun at Miami’s 44-yard line. His initial reads weren’t open, so he scrambled to his right towards his right. At the same time, wide receiver Christian Leary streaked toward the end zone. Leary raced past Miami’s deep defensive backs and King let the ball fly. 

Leary caught it in-stride around the 10-yard line without a defender near him. He slid into the end zone to give Georgia Tech its decisive 23-20 lead. Instead of risking a blocked extra point, the Yellow Jackets kneeled the ball on the extra-point attempt. Miami got the ball back with two seconds, but Georgia Tech’s defense held.

Perhaps the even more improbable than the touchdown is how Georgia Tech got in a position to win the game. Miami had the ball and a 20-17 lead, with less than a minute on the clock. Georgia Tech didn’t have any timeouts left. 

Instead of kneeling the ball out, Miami coach Mario Cristobal bafflingly drew up a run play on third-and-10 from Georgia Tech’s 30-yard line. Running back Don Chaney Jr. fumbled the ball and Georgia Tech recovered, a play that held up after official review. 

“At the end of the game, chance to put it away and should have just told them to take a timeout right there,” Cristobal said after the game. “Recalibrate and just take a knee. So, we gave them a chance and they took advantage of it and scored.” 

Of note, practically the exact same thing happened to Cristobal when he was the coach at Oregon towards the end of a 2018 overtime loss to Stanford. 

King completed a 30-yard pass to Malik Rutherford on the ensuing drive to set up what became the game-winning touchdown pass.