ATLANTA — Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key and his staff believed the best way to beat fourth-ranked Miami and Heisman Trophy contender Cam Ward was to keep the ball away from the star quarterback.
Despite losing their top two running backs and having their starting quarterback operate primarily as a runner, the Yellow Jackets’ game plan was successful.
Ward and Miami finally ran out of second-half comebacks as Yellow Jackets counterpart Haynes King led Georgia Tech to a 28-23 win over the previously unbeaten Hurricanes on Saturday, the program’s first victory over a top-five team in the AP Top 25 in 15 years.
After it was over, fans flooded onto the field at Bobby Dodd Stadium, toppling both goalposts in their celebratory rush of a victory over the Atlantic Coast Conference contenders.
Miami (9-1, 5-1 ACC), which was denied its first 10-0 start since 2017, dropped out of its first-place tie with SMU (8-1, 5-0) in the league standings.
“We just didn’t play Miami football,” safety Mishael Powell said. “We didn’t do a good job getting turnovers today.”
Georgia Tech (6-4, 4-3) became bowl eligible and ended a two-game losing streak.
King rushed for 93 yards and ran and passed for touchdowns as the Jackets held the ball almost 10 minutes longer than Miami. The home team also held the Hurricanes to a season low in points — less than half of their top-ranked average of 47.4 scored per game.
King threw only six passes, completing them all for only 32 yards, in his return after missing two games with a right shoulder injury. The Jackets outrushed the Hurricanes 271-88.
“The way they ran the football, knowing that they were banged up at quarterback, they did a better job than we did,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “Extremely, extremely disappointing. I think, as you can imagine, the entire locker room is really sad, down, disappointed. You have to own it.”
The Jackets overcame 347 passing yards and three touchdown passes by Ward, a senior and offseason transfer — he played two seasons at Incarnate Word and the past two at Washington State — who has been setting program records for the Hurricanes this year.
Key, a former offensive lineman for the Jackets, was proud of how his team got it done.
“Good football game, if you believe in running the ball and stopping the run and time of possession,” the coach said. “Those type of things still work.”
The Jackets held the ball for 17 plays on a monstrous 75-yard touchdown drive capped by King’s 5-yard screen pass to Malik Rutherford in the second quarter. The drive put Tech up 14-10 and chewed 10 minutes, 45 seconds off the clock.
Ward’s 38-yard pass to Xavier Restrepo cut the lead to 28-23 in the fourth quarter. Miami’s final possession started at its 19-yard line with 1:52 left. Ward fumbled when sacked by Romello Height, and Jordan Van Den Berg recovered for Tech.
“Our guys played,” Key said. “They didn’t bat an eye. They didn’t flinch.”
Tech’s Jamal Haynes broke through Miami’s defensive front for a 65-yard run on the second play of the game and added a 16-yard scoring run two plays later as the Jackets put up the game’s first points.
Ward answered with a record-setting 74-yard scoring pass to Elijah Arroyo. It was Ward’s program-record 30th touchdown pass of the season; he had been tied with Steve Walsh, who threw 29 touchdown passes for the 1988 Hurricanes.
Haynes left the game after a big hit from Miami safety Jaden Harris in the first quarter and didn’t return. Haynes’ backup, Chad Alexander, left with an apparent left leg injury late in the first half.
Another backup running back, Trey Cooley, lost his helmet on a hit from Miami defensive tackle Akheem Moten late in the third quarter. Moten was flagged for targeting and ejected from the game.
Miami’s unbeaten run through its first nine games included three second-half comebacks, including a week earlier when the Hurricanes beat Duke 53-31 after the Blue Devils led 28-17 in the third quarter. Against Tech, the Hurricanes’ only lead was 10-7, and they trailed after the Jackets went up 14-10 in the second quarter.
Three fourth-down stops were costly for Ward and the Miami offense. He was pressured and threw an incompletion on fourth-and-3 from the Tech 23 in the second quarter, then threw another incompletion on fourth-and-1 from the Tech 39 on the Hurricanes’ opening series of the second half. Finally, Ward was sacked on fourth-and-16 from the Tech 22 early in the fourth quarter after a penalty wiped out an apparent scoring pass to Isaiah Horton on fourth-and-6.
The Jackets, who took their first win over a top-five team since beating No. 4 Virginia Tech 28-23 in 2009, demonstrated offensive creativity in utilizing the running skills of King and receiver Eric Singleton Jr., who had six carries for 34 yards. Backup quarterback Aaron Philo added a touchdown pass.
Both teams have open dates ahead before returning to competition. The Jackets host North Carolina State in a Thursday night game on Nov. 21, and the Hurricanes are at home against Wake Forest on Nov. 23.