Miami scored its final touchdown with 26 seconds left in a 42-7 win over Stanford on Saturday. On their podcast reviewing week nine, Scott Van Pelt and Stanford Steve (Coughlin) questioned the decision by Cristobal to run plays with a 28-point lead in the final minute.
Miami was a 29.5-point favorite over Stanford on Saturday and the over/under was 45.5. The last Miami TD scored on a three-yard Girard Pringle run with 26 seconds left allowed Miami to cover the point spread and for the over to be exceeded.
Stanford Steve questioned if running the play late could have been that Cristobal was seeking to avenge a loss to Stanford in 2018 when he coached Oregon. Chris Vannini of The Athletic mentioned Cristobal's clock mismanagement cost Oregon a win against Stanford in 2018.
Instead of taking a knee with 51 seconds left, Cristobal called a running play by C.J. Verdell, who fumbled at the Stanford 43-yard line. Stanford recovered the fumble and drove 43 yards on seven plays to tie the game on a Jet Toner 32-yard field goal to force overtime.
"We got a comment about tonight. What? 7-0...calling timeout...that was disgusting...Little little touchdown. Trying to tell me that...Oregon-Stanford game, when the coach might have screwed that one up...didn't have anything to do with this one. You're going to put it on these poor kids. Same head coach...Anyone that had under or had Stanford? That was a rough one on the last disgusting. Came back from timeout and I'm like, are they taking a knee?...They're running the cover play....They were going to run another one, too, if they didn't get in. I'm well aware...that was clear they were still running ball plays."Scott Van Pelt and Stanford Steve
Cristobal improved to three wins and two losses as a head coach against Stanford. Stanford beat Oregon 38-31 in overtime in the 2018 game. Oregon won 28-6 in 2019 and 35-14 in 2020 before losing 31-24 in overtime in the final season Cristobal coached the Ducks.
The 2018 Oregon loss to Stanford was similar to the clock mismanagement Cristobal had in 2023 when Miami lost to Georgia Tech. Miami had the ball in the last minute with a chance to go into victory formation and nearly run out the clock. Cristobal chose to run a play, Miami fumbled and Georgia Tech subsequently won the game.
During his weekly appearance on the Joe Rose show on WQAM in 2023, after the loss to Georgia Tech, "Mario Cristobal tells us there is no way to rationalize the decision to run the ball. Says it was the wrong decision."
Although a much different situation with the game in hand, the decision to run plays with under a minute left when victory formation would end the game or come close to doing so was the same. The comments from SVP and Stanford Steve also revisit the allegations of Miami running up the score.
Miami running up the score dates to a 58-7 win over Notre Dame in 1985. Speaking after the game, then Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson said the Hurricanes did everything they could to avoid running up the score. According to Johnson, every substitute played in the second half of the 1985 win over Notre Dame.