Mario Cristobal takes blame for not taking knee in Hurricanes' loss: 'I made a wrong call'

Mario Cristobal failed to lock in the Miami Hurricanes' victory this past weekend, and in his press conference on Monday, the head coach reiterated his regret in not sealing the deal. Despite being up by three with under a minute left in Saturday's game, the Hurricanes dropped the ball — literally — and Georgia Tech won 23-20.

"I made a wrong call," Cristobal said on Monday. "I take full ownership in not taking a knee and giving them the opportunity to have a couple of extra plays and preventing us from sealing the win."

With his team up 20-17 with 33 seconds left, Cristobal chose not to have quarterback Tyler Van Dyke take a knee to run out the clock. Instead, Van Dyke took the snap from shotgun and handed the ball off to running back Donald Chaney, Jr., who powered forward and fumbled the ball when he was tackled.

Cristobal, who received criticism from analysts and fans alike, admitted after the game that he made a mistake with the play call.

"Just should've told him to take a knee. That's it," he said.

A former offensive lineman, who won two national championship with the Hurricanes, Cristobal said the team is eager to rebound from their first loss of the season as they prepare to take on North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

"Both coaches and players showed up with a tremendous attitude, which is not surprising," he said, "to get right back to work and go get better and all focus on improvement and getting ready for our opportunity this weekend."

The Hurricanes were ranked No. 17 in the US LBM Coaches Poll heading into the ACC matchup and dropped out of the Top 25 after the loss.