Miami’s thrilling Friday night win over Virginia Tech ended on a play that has sparked backlash in the media and begs the question, “Did the officials get the call right?”
Lined up at Miami’s 30-yard line with three seconds remaining, Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones took the game’s final snap and heaved a high-arching pass to the back of the Hurricanes’ endzone, where a hoard of Virginia Tech receivers and Miami defenders were waiting to make a play on the ball.
From there, chaos ensued.
Hokies receiver Da’Quan Felton and UM wideout Isaiah Horton – positioned as a defensive back – both appeared to come down with the ball. With the result still undecided, the game’s field judge and back judge met at the site of the play. As Horton stood up and ran away with the ball in celebration, referee Jerry Magallanes announced that Felton completed what would have been the game-winning catch and that the call on the field was under further review.
After a six-minute deliberation from both the instant replay official and the Atlantic Coast Conference’s game-day operations center, Magallanes took to the field once more and declared that the call was reversed and Drones’ pass was incomplete, sending the Hurricanes and their fans in attendance into a cheerful frenzy.
The Hokies, joined by many college football fans and commentators, were taken aback by the game-deciding decision.
“What a f***ing joke,” former Virginia Tech wide receiver and current ACC Network analyst Eddie Royal said in a post on X.
The opposers to the ruling, like Royal, have a point.
While it was likely incorrect of the two judges to rule the catch on the field as complete – as Felton never appeared to have full possession of the bobbling ball as he was landing – the replays shown thereafter didn’t seem to clearly indicate that the pass was definitively incomplete, which is a necessity to overrule a previously announced decision. According to the NCAA Instant Replay Coaches Manual, there must be “indisputable video evidence for an on-field officiating call to be changed by the Instant Replay Official.”
Shortly after the conclusion of the game, the ACC issued a statement about the overruling, stating that “the loose ball was touched by a Miami player while he was out of bounds which makes it an incomplete pass and immediately ends the play.”
A zoomed-in replay shows that Horton, the Miami player mentioned in the ACC’s statement, seems to be touching the ball as he lands out of bounds. Even that is hard to determine with certainty.