ACC stands by its ruling of a Miami fumble late in Hurricanes' inexplicable loss to Georgia Tech
The ACC is standing by its replay review of Miami’s game-changing fumble against Georgia Tech.
By now, you likely know that the Hurricanes inexplicably ran the ball while up three with less than 40 seconds to go Saturday night. RB Don Chaney Jr. fumbled as he went to the ground and Georgia Tech recovered the ball. The Yellow Jackets then scored on a 44-yard TD pass with a second left for a 24-20 win.
According to ESPN, Miami sent in Chaney’s play to the ACC office for further review after the game. The play was extremely close. The play was initially called a fumble on the field, and while it looked like he might have been down when he lost control of the ball, officials kept the original call.
Wednesday, ACC supervisor of officials Alberto Riveron — a former NFL referee — told ESPN that the right call was ultimately made.
“We take all the shots that are afforded to us by our TV partners, and we look at the play,” Riveron said. “We look for the football in relationship to where he loses control prior to hitting the ground. You have to have a view of the football the entire time, and you have to watch the football and make sure it’s in player possession until the time he’s legally down.”
“If you don’t have that, you don’t have indisputable evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. In this case, the ruling on the field is a fumble. So if we’re going to overturn a fumble, we have to see the player in control of the football once he hits the ground.”
Saturday night’s game was on the ACC Network and Riveron is right — there was no replay angle that made it incredibly clear that Chaney’s elbow was on the ground when he still had possession of the ball. Had more cameras been in use for the game — or if officials had initially ruled that Chaney was down before he fumbled — it’s very possible that Miami would have kept the football.
This appeared to be the best replay angle of the fumble. But with Miami wearing black uniforms and the angle of the lighting, finding the football tucked up against Chaney's chest is difficult.
Was Miami’s RB down on the critical fumble in the final minute? pic.twitter.com/cYEeRdVQXR
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) October 8, 2023
We'll also be blunt: debating whether Miami should have retained the ball also overshadows the main takeaway from the play that the Hurricanes should have simply taken a knee. Had Miami done that, it would be undefeated heading into its big game against North Carolina in Week 7. Instead, the Hurricanes and Cristobal learned an extremely harsh lesson.
