Miami is living right this season.
A week after an overturned Virginia Tech Hail Mary would have ended No. 8 Miami’s undefeated season, the Hurricanes got another favorable call from the refs to help finish off a rally against Cal.
With the Golden Bears up 38-32 and trying to run out the clock, quarterback Fernando Mendoza tried scrambling for a first down on third-and-12.
Mendoza was leveled with a helmet-to-helmet hit by Miami’s Wesley Bissainthe. There was no call on the play, however officials called for a targeting review as Mendoza was being checked out by Cal’s medical staff.
“Back-to-back weeks Miami is in a situation where it comes down to replay and you question if the officials are getting the calls correct,” ESPN analyst Brock Osweiler said on the broadcast. “I do not know by the definition of the rulebook, how that is not targeting… By definition that is 100 percent targeting.”
Cal punted and Miami star QB Cam Ward promptly led the Hurricanes on a six-play, 92-yard drive to give Miami a 39-38 victory in a game they trailed 35-10 in the third quarter.
“Absolutely rigged. Shameless. Disgusting,” the Reddit CFB account posted on X, along with a clown emoji.
“Cal has been completely and utterly screwed on what should have been one of the best days in program history. The ACC officiating center will quietly sweep this under the rug, until Miami needs help again next week.”
Ward led four straight touchdown drives to end the game and spoil what looked like the most monumental day in years for the Golden Bears (3-2, 0-2), who hosted ESPN’s “College GameDay” for the first time and were on the verge of their second win over a top 10 team in the past 21 seasons.
Instead, Ward made sure the rare sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium went home unhappy.
Ward produced 277 yards of offense in the fourth quarter — the most for any player in seven years — and leads the nation in yards passing (2,380) and TD passes (20) in his first season since transferring from Washington State.
“We just can’t put ourselves in these situations to come back,” Ward said. “That’s two games straight we had to do that. We have to lock in. … It’s good to get a win. We’re not going to complain. An ugly win is better than a good loss.”
Ward threw an 18-yard TD pass to Isaiah Horton with 10:28 left to cut it to 38-25 and then scrambled in from 24 yards out to make it a six-point game with 4:04 to play.
Ward finished 33 for 53 for 437 yards with two touchdown passes and a TD run, overcoming a pick-6 that helped put Miami in the big hole in the third quarter.
Mendoza delivered several big plays against the team he grew up cheering for as a kid in Miami but it wasn’t enough.
Mendoza threw a 57-yard TD pass to Jack Endries in the first quarter and had a 51-yarder to Trond Grizzell that set up Jaydn Ott’s 5-yard run that gave Cal a 14-7 lead.
Ott scored again on 66-yard catch and run on a fourth-and-1 midway through the second quarter and Mendoza threw a 59-yard pass to Jaivian Thomas in the third quarter that set up Chandler Rogers’ 9-yard TD run.
But Cal punted on its first two drives of the fourth quarter before Mendoza threw an interception in the closing seconds to end it.
“Football’s a humbling game,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “We had every opportunity to win that game, obviously. We didn’t get it done, so every individual has to own it.”
— With AP
