2024 CFB What Ifs: What if the Hail Mary call wasn't reversed in VT-Miami?
Chaos ensued at the end of the Virginia Tech-Miami game...and both teams seasons were altered because of it.
College football is a game of inches, split-second decisions and unpredictable twists that can alter the trajectory of an entire season. In this new offseason series, What Ifs, I’ll dive into the sliding door moments of the 2024 college football season—the plays, calls and decisions that could’ve changed everything.
I’ll explore how the alternate outcomes might have reshaped the College Football Playoff picture, conference standings, Heisman race and more.
What might have been? Let’s find out.
College football games are exclusively decided on the field. Virginia Tech-Miami on September 27 was decided in the replay booth.
Down four points with three seconds remaining and the ball on the Hurricanes’ 30-yard line, Virginia Tech desperately needed something special to happen. Hokies’ quarterback Kyron Drones, cousin to Miami quarterback Cam Ward, took the shotgun snap, waited a few beats and launched a towering heave toward the end zone in a last-gasp effort to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The ball sailed through the air for roughly three seconds before it came careening down in the left corner of the end zone between no fewer than seven players. Of those seven players, five went for the scrum and hysteria ensued.
As the play ended, a pair of officials stood overtop the pile of players, looking at each other with bewilderment. They knew they had to get this call right, and took their time before rendering a verdict.
While the on-field officials sorted through it all, a Miami player escaped from the pile with the football and ran across the field to celebrate. At that point, Miami game day personnel thought the game was done and dusted, and kicked on the end-of-game stadium lightshow—all while the on-field officials were still working to render a final call.
At least half of the Miami Hurricanes’ sideline started celebrating, all while moments later, Virginia Tech players in the back of the end zone started celebrating too…presumably because they overhead the officials awarding the Hokies with a game-winning touchdown.
The ruling on the field was a Virginia Tech touchdown catch, with officials determining that Da’Quan Felton completed the catch while still in bounds. After a lengthy review, however, referee Jerry Magallanes—the same referee who worked the chaotic Miami-Duke game in 2015 where he and other officials were suspended for what the ACC deemed “a series of errors” on a play where Miami lateraled eight times to win as time expired—announced the call was overturned.
In a later statement, the ACC said the pass was ultimately ruled incomplete because the ball was first touched by a Miami player while he was out of bounds.
After all that hoop-la, hysteria and hijinks, Miami emerged with a 38-34 home victory to move to 5-0. Virginia Tech, on the other hand, fell to 2-3.
What if the Hail Mary call wasn’t reversed in VT-Miami?
It’s hard to say for certain, but I do feel confident in saying that Miami would’ve faded from the ACC title conversation (and College Football Playoff conversation) a lot sooner had this call not gone the Hurricanes’ way.
After officially knocking off Virginia Tech for its fifth win in five, Miami rattled off four straight wins to move to 9-0, before dropping two of its last three. Those two close losses against Georgia Tech and Syracuse knocked the Hurricanes out of the ACC title game and led to them being left out of the College Football Playoff, as well.
Miami played with fire all season—in large part due to its leaky defense and knack for late-game heroics—and that really started with this Virginia Tech game. This game just sort of foreshadowed how the rest of the season would go for Mario Cristobal’s bunch.
What about Virginia Tech, though?
After dropping this heartbreaker to the Hurricanes, the Hokies won three straight before later dropping three close calls against Syracuse, Clemson and Duke. Drones proved against Miami that he could be a top-notch quarterback. But injuries down the stretch derailed both he and the Hokies’ season.
If the Hokies won that game against Miami, do they ride that momentum to eight or nine wins instead of a 6-6 finish? It’s hard to say for certain. I do think momentum gets a little overblown in sports, but it’s hard to argue that beating a Top 7 team on the road on a last-second Hail Mary wouldn’t make you feel good.
How does that Hail Mary call impact Miami in 2024 and beyond?
I don’t think the Hail Mary call would’ve directly put Miami head coach Mario Cristobal on the hot seat, but if his team had spiraled afterward it certainly could have.
Cristobal did a pretty good job of shushing the critics this year thanks to the 10-2 regular season record and the offensive prowess showcased by Cam Ward and company. But just like any late-game scenario involving Mario Cristobal…it’s never over until it’s over.