Dave Hyde: Miami did what was necessary, right to that final timeout, in 34-17 win

Well, there you go, college football. Happy with the horrible decision Miami had to make Saturday? Even Miami coach Mario Cristobal hesitated in calling timeout with 26 seconds left in the win at Virginia Tech. He led by 10 points. The game was over and had been for much of the afternoon. But Miami didn’t just have to win the game as everyone knew. It had to win the fifth-quarter discussion of how they played, who they impressed, what the score looked like, maybe even how it would fare in a swimsuit competition you know, all the things the College Football Playoff was supposed to end and didn’t. So, after Virginia Tech scored a near-meaningless touchdown with just over three minutes left, Cristobal did what he was forced to do and didn’t look like he wanted to do. The clock-killing, play-calling on the final drive showed as much. Cristobal even let several seconds click off before calling that timeout. That led to the cherry-on-top touchdown pass from quarterback Carson Beck to Malachi Toney with 20 seconds left for an optics-friendly final score. Miami 34, Virginia Tech 17. Impressive enough for you, college football? Because that was horrible to see and not horrible on Cristobal’s part. Horrible that he was put in that spot where he had to weigh good sportsmanship against voters’ impressions. You can say Miami didn’t win convincingly enough to change minds against a 3-8 Virginia Tech. But this wasn’t a day about changing minds. This was about not stumbling against an unranked team like Miami did to Louisville and SMU. It was about moving on to next week at Pittsburgh. So, it wasn’t a perfect day for Miami? So what? It was a good-enough day. It scored on four of its opening five drives to take control of the game. Beck threw four touchdowns. Virginia Tech scored all of 10 points until there was just over three minutes left. Does trading touchdowns in those closing minutes alter anything but the score? It shouldn’t. Does it much matter Virginia Tech ran for 194 yards or more than double Miami’s defense has allowed? Why would it? If it wanted to keep running the ball down double digits, so be it. Above it all, right to the final timeout, the louder game of Miami ranked 13th in the latest College Football Playoff ranking was playing out to some degree. It couldn’t lose conversational ground and maybe a vote or two. Making the 12-team playoffs is not as simple as moving up one spot for Miami. It might need to move up three spots to 10th the way it works. The 11th and 12th spots are expected to be taken by one of the champions of five smaller-school conferences and the winner of the ACC championship game The latter probably won’t be Miami unless a string of events play out. Odder things have happened. But do you bank a season on it? ESPN’s computers put Miami’s chances at getting in the playoffs at 40 percent. You decide if that’s a good chance or not. That percent is predicated on Miami winning at Pittsburgh next week, too. Early question: Would it have to beat Pitt by more than the 37-15 Notre Dame beat Pitt to claim a good victory? This is the problem with beauty-contest football. It’s exactly what a playoff was supposed to stop. But you can’t help watching. Miami didn’t run laps around 3-8 Virginia Tech, if that’s the measure. But it was comfortably ahead most of the game. Even when Virginia Tech cut it to 20-10 in the third quarter, Miami didn’t look threatened. It followed with the sequence of the day. Beck threw a perfectly placed third-and-7 pass to Daylyn Upshaw for 19 yards. One play later, Beck threw a 16-yard touchdown to Girard Pringle to put the game out of reach at 27-10. That didn’t just continue Beck’s good run of late. It continued the advance of Miami’s freshmen in the year with Upshaw and Pringle. Malachi Toney is at the center of that, throwing a completion, taking a direct snap in the Wildcat, having a 56-yard play where he accidentally barreled over a woman on the sideline. He then quickly helped her up. The kid does it all, folks, right down to that final, unnecessary touchdown. The CFP committee asked for it. Toney caught it. And Miami winning 34-17 looks good in a headline.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/22/dave-hyde-miami-did-what-was-necessary-right-to-that-final-timeout-in-34-17-win/