Georgia Tech experienced one of the program’s more memorable wins when it beat Miami one year ago at Hard Rock Stadium, a win that transpired after an incomprehensible late fumble by the Hurricanes and a heroic performance by the Tech offense to drive for the winning score.
The lead up to the game and what happened behind the scenes made it even more storybook.
Typically, Tech spends a night in the same hotel in South Florida whenever it is scheduled to play against Miami. But the Friday before the Oct. 7, 2023 game, that particular hotel didn’t have enough vacancy. So the Yellow Jackets checked in to a different hotel the day before they were scheduled to play the 17th-ranked Hurricanes.
Tech wasn’t the only large traveling party at that hotel that weekend. Attendees for a religious convention also happened to be occupying many of the rooms and had quickly become familiar with the Jackets, so much so that when the team began boarding the buses to head to Hard Rock Stadium hours before the game, they were told by several of their new friends, “Don’t worry about the outcome, we’ve been praying for you all weekend.”
Call it divine intervention or not: There’s no denying something miraculous took place at the end of Tech’s 23-20 win over Miami.
The Jackets trailed 20-17 with 5:32 on the fourth quarter clock and only needed one defensive stop to get the ball back. But Miami converted two third downs and had moved to the Tech 30 with less than 90 seconds to go. All the Hurricanes had to do, after Tech had used its final timeout at the 1:18 mark on first down, was take a victorious knee twice to preserve the win.
ESPN’s win probability tool had Miami’s chances of winning at 99.9% at that point.
Instead, Miami coach Mario Cristobal chose to run two offensive plays, the second of which had running back Donald Chaney (who has since transferred to Louisville) go into the middle of a pile where he was stripped of the ball by Tech linebacker Paul Moala. Defensive end Kyle Kennard fell on the loose ball at his own 26, much to the shock and horror of the more than 58,000 fans in attendance.
Yet, there were only 26 seconds remaining on the clock.
Tech needed at least 40 yards to even think about attempting a field goal that would send the game to overtime. An incompletion on first down left only 21 seconds remaining. A 30-yard completion to Malik Rutherford, moving the ball to the Miami 44, provided a glimmer of hope, but the clock continued to run and quarterback Haynes King had to spring to the line, ready the offense and stop the ticking with a spike leaving just 10 seconds to play.
Feeling pressure after the snap, King rolled to his right, hesitated at midfield, then spotted a streaking Christian Leary.
An off-balance, on-the-run pass fell at the 10-yard line into the hands of Leary, who caught the ball in stride, slid over the goal line with two seconds to go and was spared getting hit by a bottle of water that was thrown at him from the stands behind the end zone.
The clock expired on the ensuing kickoff and Tech won 23-20, a win that ultimately helped get the Jackets to their first bowl game since 2018.
Desmond Howard, an analyst for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” vividly remembers watching the outcome unfold on television.
“What (Key) has done is he’s made these kids believe,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August, in Dublin, Ireland. “Half the battle, especially when you’re in your first or second year, is just getting ‘em to believe. You don’t (win that Miami game) unless you believe. They kept hope and they believed and I think that’s a testament to what (Key) and his staff have been able to do.”
The Jackets would go on to finish the 2023 season by winning four of their next seven, including the Gasparilla Bowl over Central Florida. Miami lost five of its next eight, including the Pinstripe Bowl to Rutgers.
The Hurricanes are 6-0 this season and ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25.
Tech and Miami are scheduled for a rematch this season Nov. 9 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
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