CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — They celebrated on the field. They celebrated in the locker room. And when Miami’s overnight charter flight landed Sunday after the Hurricanes’ biggest comeback win in a quarter-century, another unplanned celebration was waiting.
Fire trucks greeted the plane by shooting plumes of water over it as it taxied to the gate.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “That was crazy.”
A little bit of crazy on Sunday morning made sense, because everything about Saturday night at California was pretty much crazy as well.
The Hurricanes trailed by 25 points late in the third quarter, trailed by 20 with 11 minutes remaining and somehow beat Cal 39-38 — the biggest comeback win in FBS play this season and the biggest by Miami since a 28-point comeback to beat Boston College in 1999. Miami quarterback Cam Ward enhanced his Heisman Trophy campaign by passing for 437 yards and accounting for three touchdowns in the final 10:28, including the game-winning throw to Elijah Arroyo with 26 seconds left.
“I didn’t play my best ball,” Ward said. “Nobody played their best ball. We just can’t keep putting ourselves in these situations.”
It was two down-to-the-wire games in a row for Miami. The Hurricanes erased a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Virginia Tech on Sept. 27 — surviving a Hail Mary touchdown that was overturned on the last play — and then came back from 25 down one week later. The Hokies felt the replay review of the final play was botched and Cal surely thought Miami’s Wesley Bissainthe was guilty of targeting Golden Bears quarterback Fernando Mendoza in the final minutes on Saturday. Had that play gone Cal’s way, Miami would have needed an even bigger miracle.
“This team has so much trust,” Cristobal said. “Insane resiliency. We’re down 35-10 and nobody blinks. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Miami (6-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) jumped two spots to No. 6 in the AP Top 25 on Sunday. It’s only the third time since 2005 that the Hurricanes have been ranked that high; the team was No. 3 for two polls in November 2005 and had a two-week stay at No. 2 in November 2017.
Miami is off this week before going to Louisville on Oct. 19.
“This was special,” receiver Xavier Restrepo said after the Cal game, one in which he went from No. 9 to No. 4 on Miami’s all-time yardage list and set up the winning score with a 77-yard catch-and-run to start the final possession. “Wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The plane bringing the Hurricanes home was pretty dark for much of the five-hour ride; almost everybody was sleeping, or at least trying to sleep. One of the few lights on the plane was coming from Cristobal’s laptop because he watched the game a couple of times on the way home.
Running back Mark Fletcher, who ran for 81 yards and a score, had no problem getting a few hours of sleep.
“I slept good,” Fletcher said. “We just never quit. We had so much poise. There was no panic, no panic from players, no panic from coaches. We just played. It’s conference play now and conference games are like playoff games. Just prepare every week like it’s the national championship and see what happens.”
Sleep, evidently, was not on Cristobal’s to-do list after he got back Sunday. He walked to his car, still in his suit, carrying a fresh cup of Cuban coffee. For those who don’t know, that’s high-octane stuff and not recommended for anyone who plans to nap imminently.
“Sleep? Maybe later,” Cristobal said. “Maybe. There’s work to do. We just came a long way. We still have miles to go.”
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