Cote: Miami Hurricanes sit QB Ward late in bowl loss, end season a ‘disappointing success’ | Opinion

They should have put Cam Ward back in.

This Miami Hurricanes football season that sagged so badly at the end needed this bowl win. And Ward, who gave everything in his one season in Coral Gables, deserved the chance to go out a hero. The quarterback who set UM school records for passing should have gone back in late in the game or at least on that final drive.

But that is the micro view of Miami’s wild 42-41 loss to Iowa State on Saturday in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.

From a macro vantage, the proper holiday bow to put on this Hurricanes season is a bit of a challenge.

It was not a failure by any means except by the harshest measure. If improvement is a fair bottom-line gauge, then this season plainly succeeded. Yet it ended Saturday feeling like a disappointment for sure by the standard UM set for itself, when the record was 9-0 and everything seemed possible.

Even if Miami had won, forgive me to say a five-time national champion college program should not have allowed itself to ever be excited to end any season with a win in something called the Pop-Tarts Bowl. And to be rewarded with a trophy that has a working toaster built into it? Seriously.

Had UM won the toaster trophy should have gone in the Canes’ kitchen. As a doorstop, perhaps.

As season-ending prizes go, let’s all agree a Pop-Tart would hardly have been the icing on the cake that UM and coach Mario Cristobal had in mind before the regular season ended with two costly losses in three games and relegation to a second-tier bowl with a silly name.

The result so accurately mirrored UM’s season: Plenty offense, not enough defense.

“Disappointed that we couldn’t pull out a victory,” said Cristobal afterward. “These guys have always fought and always competed and this was no exception. It’s painful. It’s as painful as it gets when you don’t win. But there’s a lot to build on.”

Of his team’s defense: “it’s nowhere what the standard is for us. There were some issues.”

At one point during the postgame news conference the Pop-Tarts logo-festooned backdrop began to fall forward onto Cristobal. Reporters were heard to say, “Whoa!” before the backdrop was caught.

Cristobal was not in a mood to be amused. This was a victory he really wanted.

It was Hurricanes vs. Cyclones. The Bad Weather Bowl. The ABC announcers should have been meteorologists. Instead the sideline reporter was dressed like a Pop-Tart. Again, not kidding.

The game was an insane display of bad defense. The score was 28-28 before the second quarter was half finished.

If you were watching with friends at home and the party game was to pass around one Pop-Tart for every point scored, you were dealing with sugar overdoses by halftime.

Miami led 31-28 at the half and Ward was great as usual: 12 for 19 for 190 yards and three touchdowns — despite top receiver Xavier Restrepo opting to not play for risk of injury prior to the NFL Draft. Ward threw his 156th college-career TD pass to set the all-time FBS record.

Ward might have done the same as Restrepo and sat. Nobody would have blamed him. But he didn’t.

“Modern-day conventional wisdom sometimes clashes with principles and values of what is right,” said Cristobal of Ward’s decision. “Nowadays in college football, we are compensated at all levels — coaches, players, administrators — and to do a job, you must finish the job. I think Cam’s DNA, his upbringing, everything that he is made of and stands for is the right kind of stuff, the stuff you want your team made of. He understands the importance of finishing.”

I wish he had been given the chance. Nobody was better built this season for late heroics.

I liked that Cristobal put in backup Emory Williams for the second half. Next year’s starter looks to be Williams or a transfer-to-be-named-later; we will see. And bowl games are a segue between this season and next, after all.

But Williams was bad. It was smart relying on his Damian Martinez-led ground game, but he was bad throwing the ball. He ended 5 for 13 for 26 yards. Ouch.

Miami had the ball with 51.2 seconds left needing only a field goal to win.

Ward stayed on the sideline.

So Miami, once 9-0, ends the season 10-3, the three losses by a combined 10 points..

“In three games we feel short by a play, a drive, a series,” said Cristobal.

At 9-0 UM had an ACC Championship Game in sight, and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. Instead, it ended with Miami denied the “honor” of feasting on Pop-Tarts.

The Hurricanes led all of college football this year in points and yards per game, but it ends like this.

Miami with a win could have had its first 11-win season since 2003, when the glory days ended. Instead, UM suffered its sixth consecutive bowl loss dating to its last postseason win in 2016.

Ward’s 4,123 yards and 36 touchdowns both were Miami school records this season. Yet he stood on the sideline as his backup flailed and failed to deliver a bowl win.

Cristobal was reticent afterward on why Ward did not re-enter the game. Had it been a pregame agreement with the QB?

Of those decisions, “We make ‘em in private, we’ll keep ‘em in private,” ’said the coach.

Cristobal is preaching progress now — and should, rightly.

“Over the last three years, there’s been a ton of progress,” he said. “First time Miami has been undefeated at home for a long, long time. First or second 10-win season in maybe 20 years. State champions for the first time in a long time. A lot of things accomplished and a lot more to accomplish.”

Cristobal’s first season back at his alma mater Miami won five games. Second season, seven. Now, 10. Progress.

The season ends, but it doesn’t. Never does.

Miami has lost 10 players at last count to the transfer portal.

This is what chased UM men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga into into retirement this week.

Cristobal, 21 years younger at 54, is up to the challenge of college sports’ changing landscape He will win his recruiting battles, his portal wars. He has a track record.

“There’s a lot to build on,” as he said.

But what Cristobal and UM carry into the offseason is bittersweet.

This has been a season of undeniable progress.

But it has been one that feels like a disappointing success.