Controversial Officiating Takes Late TD Away in 12-10 Loss
IOWA CITY — What is the sound of one hand clapping? What rhymes with orange? When is a fair catch signal not a fair catch signal?
Big Ten officials tried to answer one of these impossible questions, at least — and it likely cost Iowa the game.
With Iowa trailing 12-10 late in the fourth quarter, the Hawkeye defense forced one last punt out of Minnesota — which star returner Cooper DeJean picked up off the bounce before eluding every tackler the Gopher punt coverage team could throw at him, en route to scampering into the end zone for what appeared to be a go-ahead 54-yard touchdown with 1:21 left in the game.
The officials sent the play to review, understandably; DeJean was next to the Minnesota sideline and the immediate question was whether DeJean had stayed inbounds on the return (he had).
The review kept going after the requisite time to determine the sideline call, though, and Minnesota players began celebrating near the end of the review. Sure enough, officials determined DeJean's wave-off constituted an invalid free catch signal, which disallowed the touchdown and placed the ball back at Iowa's 46-yard line, where DeJean had fielded the ball.
"I assumed they would blow the whistle if it was a fair catch," DeJean said after the game. "I didn’t hear a whistle, though, so I just kept going.”
Instead, Iowa had the ball placed back at its 46-yard line, at which point the Hawkeye offense gave up its fourth sack of the day, followed by an incomplete pass and a game-sealing interception to give Minnesota the 12-10 victory.
First things first: the NCAA rulebook does address this exact scenario in its interpretations (see rule V below):
"Team A's scrimmage kick is rolling beyond the neutral zone when B17 alerts his teammates to stay away from the ball by a 'get away' signal.
RULING: Invalid signal. The ball is dead by rule when either team recovers."
Further, the NCAA offers that the "receiving team advancing after a fair catch signal" is one of seven aspects of a return play reviewable on replay.
That all said...
1) The play wasn't blown dead on the field, indicating that officials didn't interpret DeJean's motions as an invalid signal.
2) Neither team stopped competing after DeJean made the signal or recovered the punt, indicating that the players didn't interpret DeJean's motions as an invalid signal.
3) The review, according to Ferentz, was initiated for a different aspect of the play.
"The most peculiar part to me, as I understand it, the initial replay was to find out if [DeJean] stepped out of bounds, which clearly he didn't," Ferentz said. "That's fine, do your homework. But then somehow we went from there to a whole series of topics. It's really hard to accept the explanation that we got."
The Big Ten later offered this official explanation from referee Tim O'Dey:
“Let’s start with definitions that surround the play. With regard to it there are valued and invalid signals that can be given during any kick play. An invalid signal is any waving motion by a receiving team member that happens throughout the kickdown. That’s the first piece of information you have to apply here.
The second piece that comes from rule 6, is that any catch or recovery of a kick after an invalid signal is given causes the ball to become dead upon recovery or catch. Those are the basis for what we made a decision on after seeing the play.
Going back to the play. The receiver makes a pointing gesture with his right hand and he makes multiple waving gestures with his left hand. If you look at the video you’ll see that. That waving motion of the left hand constitutes an invalid fair catch signal. So when the receiving team recovers the ball, by rule it becomes dead. So that is a reviewable element of the game. We let the play run out and then when we went to review, review shows with indisputable evidence that there is a waving motion with the left hand. And that is when these rules are applied.
It's legal to point but any waving motion of the hands during a kick play is considered an invalid signal.”
That's the conference's story. Ferentz didn't quite see it the same way.
"It was a peculiar game, in that we had six replays today," Ferentz said. "I can't remember a game where we had that many. We had the targeting [on Karson Sharar] on the kickoff. That's a first for me. But the last [call], it's hard to take that one on a couple levels."
"First of all, I don't know how to coach our guys, because we cover that in pregame with the officials each and every game about fair catch procedure: above the head, wave," Ferentz continued. "And we also cover pointing to the ground for an errant kick — which, there were several of those today. That's something we've covered with every player that comes through. It's pretty standard procedure, I would imagine."
Ferentz also called the conference's review procedure into question.
"I'm still not sure who makes the final decision [on video reviews]," Ferentz said. "I know we go to Pittsburgh for analysis, and my theory there is, the more people get involved, probably the more screwed up things are."
"If it was up to me, if you want my opinion, it ought to go back to the official who is on the field, talking to the coaches, he should have the final say," Ferentz said. "That might clean things up. It might not make it right, but it might make it easier to understand. Whoever the wizard is behind the curtain, it is what it is."
The referees weren't much more popular on the Minnesota sidelines either, at least if our Twitter mentions are any indication; the Gophers were flagged four times on Iowa's lone touchdown drive of the game (and only three times the rest of the game).
None of those calls had such an outsized effect on the outcome of the game, though, and none of them took one of the most amazing highlights of the last 25 years off the board.
"That part is the hardest part," Ferentz said. "An unbelievable effort gets taken off the board."
“I'm still kind of in shock of what all happened," DeJean said. "It's frustrating for this team. We kept fighting through the end of the game, and it seems like it was all taken away in that one play.”