Mario Cristobal faces wrath of Miami fans for familiar game management in upset loss

Here's the thing about football coaches: All of them are bad at clock management. NFL, college football, peewee. Bad time management is the norm, not the exception. Every fanbase is convinced their head coach is the absolute worst at it. Most of those fanbases don't realize the universality of the complaints. But I admit...Miami fans might be right. Because Mario Cristobal is uniquely terrible at it.

Cristobal is always good for a headscratching "what was he thinking?" sequence at the end of a half or game. So on Friday night, when No. 2 Miami let Louisville bleed the clock down before halftime, no one was surprised. That doesn't mean Miami fans and neutral lovers of the sport weren't angry though.

And that was before the Cardinals finished off the Hurricanes in a 24-21 upset by intercepting a pass that never should have been thrown. Miami had made it to the Louisville 31 with just over 30 seconds to play. They needed a field goal to tie and they were in range. The simplest approach would be to run the ball and get as close to the uprights as you can (after all, the QB had already committed three turnovers). But no, in familiar fashion, Cristobal's game management was horrendous. On first-and-10, Carson Beck had a short pass tipped, allowing TJ Capers to pounce and haul it in.

Social media let Cristobal have it after what has become a yearly tradition: Miami losing as a double-digit underdog.

Best reactions to Mario Cristobal suffering another Miami upset

Whether it was in response to the halftime gaff or the end-of-game strategy, media and fans were brutal in their criticism of Cristobal as a coach.

The problem for Cristobal is he's got a reputation. The College Football Playoff committee might not factor his unreliable game management when they set the field in December, but we all know what's holding Miami back.

And the numbers back up that reputation. Cristobal is now tied with Kalen DeBoer and High Freeze for the most outright losses as a double-digit favorite in the last four years.

Miami is still a contender in the ACC. The margin for error just got a low more narrow. They're 1-1 in conference play, trailing Georgia Tech (3-0), Virginia (3-0), Duke (3-0), SMU (2-0), Louisville (2-1), Pitt (2-1) and even Clemson (2-2).

They'll go head-to-head with SMU and Pitt, but they won't see the others. They'll have hope the rest slip up somewhere along the way while Miami takes care of their own business. (The problem? Miami didn't do that last year, losing to Syracuse after falling to Georgia Tech, both times as a double-digit favorite.)