With Miami’s loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday having cemented its status as one of college football’s most memorable collapses in recent memory, many have wondered how The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz would address the devastating defeat.
Le Batard — a Miami alum who covered the Hurricanes during their most prominent era — didn’t disappoint, calling the loss the worst in the program’s history. And as the Meadowlark Media co-founder noted, there’s some stiff competition for that honor.
“You’ve got two national championship games that the University of Miami lost because they committed a million turnovers and one of them was decided by a penalty flag. Neither one was as bad as Saturday night was,” Le Batard said. “You’ve got losses to Middle Tennessee State, you’ve got losses to FIU. You’ve got a loss that closed the Orange Bowl, losing by seven touchdowns to Virginia. You have a probation loss to FSU that was by a million points. Saturday night was the worst loss in program history.”
After producer Billy Gil pushed back that Le Batard’s take was “too much,” the former Highly Questionable host explained his logic.
“We could legitimately play that minute over ten million times and not get the result that ends not just with Miami losing, but Miami fumbling, Miami allowing 75 yards to that offense at the end of the game with 30 seconds left,” Le Batard said. “Every channel on satellite radio was saying the same thing which was, ”what idiots.’ Nobody was saying anything different. It was just a consensus of everybody’s Sunday morning was talking about, ‘how can you lose that way?'”
“Saturday night was the worst loss in program history.” – Dan on the Miami Hurricanes 🙌
📺 https://t.co/LLb8Ysf2hw pic.twitter.com/JGu5MFPlJy
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) October 9, 2023
That Le Batard — who’s more known for his nuance than his hot takes — would proclaim Miami’s latest loss the worst in the program’s history says a lot about the catastrophic nature of the loss.
If you somehow haven’t heard by now, the Hurricanes held a 20-17 lead with less than a minute remaining in the game and was seemingly two kneel downs away from moving to 5-0 on the season. But despite the Yellow Jackets being out of timeouts, Miami head coach Mario Cristobal opted to call multiple running plays, with running back Donald Chaney Jr. fumbling the ball to Georgia Tech with 25 seconds remaining in the game.
As Le Batard alluded to, the Yellow Jackets — who lost to Bowling Green last week and entered Saturday’s game as a 19.5-point underdog — capitalized, going 74 yards in 24 seconds, with quarterback Haynes King throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Christian Leary with one second remaining in the game.
Part 2: Georgia Tech receiver Christian Leary gets behind the Miami defense. Quarterback Haynes King finds him for a 44-yard touchdown pass pic.twitter.com/QCMPoHEQ5C
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 8, 2023
As for producer Mike Ryan Ruiz’s response to the loss, the show’s biggest Hurricanes fan (and an actual Miami booster) said that while he thinks there have been more impactful defeats in the program’s history, this particular one was “a huge embarrassment” and that any criticism of Cristobal is justified.
“That was terrible,” Ruiz said. “He turned a win into a loss.”
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]
