Virginia Tech thought they upset No. 7 Miami on the road, but victory was, almost quite literally, snatched from their hands.

With three seconds left and down four points, Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones aired it out to the back of the end zone toward a swarm of both Hokies and Hurricanes. 

With the naked eye, it was tough to tell who initially came down with the ball, as seven players leaped for it. 

After some jostling, a Miami defensive back ran away with the pigskin, and celebrations began.

However, the ruling on the field was actually a touchdown caught by Da’Quan Felton.

But, there was a lengthy review, and officials reversed the call, giving the Hurricanes a 38-34 victory and putting the Hokies in absolute disbelief.

“It came down to half an inch,” Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal said to the ESPN broadcast following the game, admitting his team played “sloppy.”

Virginia Tech got on the board first with a touchdown on their first drive, but the Hurricanes answered by finding the end zone on back-to-back drives themselves. However, the Hokies scored 20 unanswered points to take a 27-17 lead early in the third quarter.

Elijah Arroyo #8 of the Miami Hurricanes celebrates with teammate Cam McCormick #84 after scoring a touchdown against the Virginia Tech Hokies during the first quarter of the game at Hard Rock Stadium on September 27, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Florida.  (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

HURRICANE HELENE FORCES BRONCOS TO PRACTICE ON INDOOR TENNIS COURTS IN WEST VIRGINIA RESORT

Miami scored a touchdown to cut their deficit to three late in the quarter, but Virginia Tech found the end zone again to go back up 10. On the Canes’ next drive, they again made it a three-point game, and then, they forced a three-and-out. 

The Canes marched down the field and capitalized the drive with a touchdown to take the lead with two minutes left. Virginia Tech, clearly, had more than enough time, but the review was not on their side.

Miami’s Cam Ward completed 24 of his 38 passes for 343 yards and four touchdowns, with 10 different Hurricanes making at least one reception.

Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward (1) makes a pass attempt during the game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Miami Hurricanes on Friday, September 27, 2204, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.  (Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Hokies running back Bhayshul Tuten ran for 141 yards on his 19 carries, one of which was a score.

Miami, now 5-0, will visit Cal next week, while Virginia Tech, 2-3, will also fly out west for a date with Stanford.

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The Lakers have hired Dr. Vanessa Brooks as their head athletic trainer, people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly on the matter told The Times. The position on the Lakers’ medical staff had been open after Roger Sancho left the organization to take a job with the Phoenix Suns.

Brooks worked with the Oklahoma City Thunder since 2019. She was the first Black woman to be dual certified as an athletic trainer and physical therapist.

She’s the latest hire in a restructuring of the Lakers’ medical staff this offseason, with Brooks working under Dr. Leroy Sims, who the team hired as its director of player performance.

According to Brooks’ LinkedIn profile, she’s one of two certified trainers on the NBA’s Emergency Preparedness Committee, which crafts the cardiac, neck and spine emergency protocols for the league.

The Lakers will hold media day on Monday before opening training camp on Tuesday.

She’s expected to be with the team at the start of training camp.

This was never how Daniel Ricciardo’s Formula One career was supposed to end.

For a driver who once looked like a potential world champion and quickly won over fans through his affable nature and infectious personality, he deserved a proper send-off after 13 years on the grid.

Instead, he was left in limbo. To treat last Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix as, unofficially, his last grand prix, without any closure or a decision over whether he’d be back in Austin next month.

That didn’t arrive until Thursday, four days after Ricciardo had said what he anticipated would be his final farewells to the F1 paddock, when Red Bull confirmed his departure.

It put an end to what had turned into Schrödinger’s driver decision: Ricciardo was both leaving and yet to leave. Ricciardo’s emotion on Sunday made clear what was going to happen. Yet he’d been robbed of the chance to properly say goodbye to F1. It was all done with an asterisk.

Through his media sessions on Thursday in Singapore, Ricciardo acknowledged the speculation that he could be replaced by Liam Lawson, Red Bull’s reserve driver, as early as the next race. But he seemed more worried about 2025 than the remainder of the season. He didn’t appear to seriously think that it was his last F1 race.

By Saturday, as Ricciardo digested his Q1 exit that left him 16th on the grid, while RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda made it through to Q3, his tone and body language suggested there’d been a shift. What became a possibility had now become assumed as fact.

He made a concerted effort to soak up every single moment of Sunday, knowing this could be the final time he raced in F1. That even extended to taking a little extra time to sit in his car before getting out after the checkered flag. It had been his home for over a decade.

“The cockpit is something that … I got very used to for many years,” Ricciardo said in an emotional interview with F1 TV after the race, fighting back tears. “I just wanted to savor the moment.”

Danny Ric ❤️

An emotional Daniel Ricciardo speaks after the #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/53hD09HZ4z

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 22, 2024

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Ricciardo may not be the grand-prix driver he once was at Red Bull. The one who burst onto the scene and immediately put Sebastian Vettel, then the reigning four-time world champion, in the shade in 2014. Or who produced magic around the streets of Monaco in 2018, redemption for his heartbreaking loss two years earlier. Or who put up a genuine challenge to Max Verstappen, now recognized as an F1 great, in their time as teammates.

But he deserved so much better than this protracted, awkward exit that ended up dragging out into a situation where there were zero winners.

Even as Ricciardo spoke like a man who’d raced for the final time in F1 on Sunday, the official line from Red Bull and RB was that no decision had been taken. The only acknowledgement of the potential change in driver lineup came in RB’s post-race press release when, in explaining the decision to pit Ricciardo for the fast lap late on, team principal Laurent Mekies noted it “may have been Daniel’s last race.” Red Bull F1 chief Christian Horner said on Sunday that the break before Austin was a chance to review the driver performances across Red Bull’s two teams, and that Ricciardo was “just one part of the jigsaw.”

The reason that review had to take place now is Lawson, and the need to make a call on his future or risk losing him due to clauses in his contract. If Red Bull had failed to get him on the F1 grid, then he’d be free to leave its driver setup. Given how well he performed during his five-race stint while Ricciardo was out injured last year, Red Bull didn’t want to lose a talent that could play a big part in its F1 future.

But for Ricciardo, the timing meant that, if Red Bull wanted to pull the trigger and make a change with six races left in the season, there was always this risk he’d be robbed of a proper F1 farewell unless a decision were made prior to Singapore.

And of all races to not be at, the United States Grand Prix in Austin, where Ricciardo leans fully into the spirit of the race — he’s sported Texas Longhorns jerseys, cowboy hats, and even entered the paddock on horseback one year — feels like the worst one to make a change before. His commercial appeal, especially in the United States, remains undeniable.

The performance reasons behind the decision are understandable. Ricciardo has only one point in the last seven races, and Lawson showed what he can do during his five-race cameo last year. With Haas closing in on RB in the constructors’ championship standings, sometimes tough calls must be taken for the sake of the wider team.

It’s the waiting that turned this situation into a lose-lose for Red Bull. Had it been announced that Singapore would be Ricciardo’s last race, he’d have received the chance to fully embrace the grand prix weekend and get a proper send-off. There wouldn’t have been the strange uncertainty, the doubt-laden answers. Nothing able to be said with any assurance or confidence.

That all left the F1 community to say a soft goodbye. Social media has been rife with videos of Ricciardo’s emotional chats in Singapore, edits set to “Pink Skies,” his favorite song by Zach Bryan, and clips of his famous “enjoy the butterflies” interview. All of it was on the assumption of a decision that didn’t get confirmed until days later.

No, we’re not losing one of F1’s all-time greats, or even one of the best drivers on the grid right now. It is nevertheless an abrupt, sad farewell to someone who has played a big role in defining F1 through the 2010s and played a significant part in Red Bull’s F1 history.

F1 can be ruthless. That’s no secret. But for someone who has put so much of his heart and personality into being more than just another F1 driver, Ricciardo deserved better.

Daniel Ricciardo celebrates in style after winning the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix, two years after a bad pit stop cost him the victory there. (Dan Istitene / Getty Images)

(Top photo of Daniel Ricciardo after the Singapore Grand Prix: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)