Marc Serota / Reuters

The Hurricanes won on Thursday to finish 6-6.

Boston College took a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter on Callender’s TD run, and the Hurricanes marched 64 yards on 10 plays on the ensuing drive. Facing fourth-and-1 from the Boston College 12 — and in chip-shot range for kicker Jon Peattie — Coker kept his offense on the field.

Most of the crowd — 23,308, the smallest in Miami’s 44 home games since Dec. 4, 1999 — cheered the decision. They booed the result, when Freeman’s screen pass to James fell incomplete.

More trouble awaited Freeman later in the half, when Tribble intercepted him on consecutive attempts in Miami territory. The Hurricanes escaped the first unscathed, stopping Boston College in four plays, but Tribble ran the second back 22 yards for a touchdown and a 14-3 Eagles lead with 1:36 left before halftime.

But Miami rallied, getting a rarity for them this season — a big play — as the spark. Freeman found Ryan Moore with a 49-yard pass, the longest of Moore’s career, to set up a 7-yard scoring toss to Lance Leggett with 10 seconds left that pulled Miami to 14-10. And UM’s defense slammed the door from there.

“We came in here to win the game,” BC linebacker Brian Toal said. “We didn’t get the job done. To be so close to getting the ACC championship we dreamed of, it’s tough.”

After the game, the Hurricanes grabbed the Pata banner, knelt around it at midfield in prayer, then carried it off. Coker lingered behind, hugging his seniors and posing with them for photos in a happy scene.

Following a season in which Miami endured the death of a senior standout, the fallout over a sideline-clearing brawl and a litany of injuries, something finally went his way.

“The future is very bright at the University of Miami,” Coker said. “We’ve been a little down. We won’t be down long here, and you can print that.”

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