Controversial call kills Kentucky’s momentum at halftime. ‘That’s the wrong call.’
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Game day: Kentucky at Auburn
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-Auburn football game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.
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A touchdown that wasn’t in the final seconds of the first half might have been the difference-maker in Kentucky’s 29-13 loss at Auburn in the Wildcats’ season opener Saturday afternoon.
With the Cats trailing, 8-7, and possessing the ball on the Auburn 2-yard-line, UK running back Chris Rodriguez took a snap out of the Wildcat formation on first down and plowed up the middle, seemingly into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.
“Touchdown, Kentucky, and the Cats back in front!” announced the SEC Network’s Tom Hart as UK players on the field made the touchdown signal with their arms in the air. “Hold on a second ...” Hart continued.
Instead of six points for the Cats, the ruling on the field said Rodriguez was down at the Tigers 1, and the play was immediately placed under video review. Even though replays appeared to show that Rodriguez broke the plane of the goal line with the football, the call on the field was confirmed.
No touchdown, Kentucky.
UK quarterback Terry Wilson was stuffed at the line of scrimmage on the next play, and then — with 26 seconds remaining in the first half and no timeouts left — Wilson threw an errant third-down pass into the end zone, where it was intercepted by Auburn’s Roger McCreary, who returned it all the way to the other end of the field for a Tigers touchdown — a stunning turn of events just before halftime.
Luckily for the Wildcats, a video review of the interception return showed that one of Auburn’s star defensive players — Derick Hall — committed a targeting penalty on the return. Hall was ejected from the game, the Auburn touchdown was negated, and the Tigers went into halftime leading 8-7, but the whole sequence was a major missed opportunity for Kentucky, especially since it appeared the Cats had actually scored a go-ahead touchdown just two plays earlier.
The decision not to overturn the call on the field and give UK a touchdown on Rodriguez’s run was made not by the on-field referee, but by the head replay official. NCAA rules say that — to reverse an on-field ruling — the replay official must be convinced “beyond all doubt by indisputable video evidence through one or more video replays provided to the monitor” that the original call was the wrong one.
The Southeastern Conference’s video review center is located in Birmingham, and the league introduced an on-field monitor last season that allowed the game referee to provide additional input to the replay official while the review is in process, but the decision to uphold or overturn calls ultimately lies with the replay official in Birmingham.
According to NCAA rules, all reviews are “based upon video evidence provided by and coming directly from the televised production of the game,” as well as any extra video that is also available to the television producer. The video replays shown on the SEC Network broadcast of Saturday’s game appeared conclusive that Rodriguez crossed the goal line with the football, and it’s logical that any additional video available to SEC Network producers providing a better angle on the play would have been shown during the broadcast.
It appeared that Rodriguez’s right knee did come close to the ground earlier in the would-be touchdown run, but the official explanation from the referee implied that the review was for whether Rodriguez broke the plane of the goal line with the football, and the ball was spotted inside the Auburn 1-yard line.
Hart noted that the referees didn’t blow the whistle to stop the play when Rodriguez’s knee lowered toward the ground (but seemingly never touched it) earlier in the run. “That’s a touchdown every day,” Hart concluded. SEC Network analyst Jordan Rodgers agreed.
“I don’t understand it either. He was clearly in,” UK Coach Mark Stoops said after the game. “I really can’t get a good explanation. I didn’t really get good explanations all day. I don’t know if it was us wearing these masks and all that — I don’t know. But that was tough. That was a big swing.”
Before the next play, the SEC Network broadcast crew came to the consensus that it should have been a touchdown.
“To me, that’s the wrong call,” Rodgers said after UK wasn’t granted the touchdown. “I think you can look at that and say, clearly, that ball — and most of his body, even all of his body — is over the goal line.”
Instead of going into halftime up 14-8 with the ball to start the second half and plenty of momentum, the Cats went into the break down 8-7 following a major missed opportunity.
The UK offense had three-and-outs on its first two possessions of the second half, gaining a total of one yard on six plays to start the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Auburn largely controlled the second half, though Kentucky’s DeMarcus Harris appeared to score a late touchdown that could have made it a one-possession game with a little more than 2 minutes left. That touchdown was overturned by the replay official after a video review clearly showed Harris’ knee was down earlier in the play.
Stoops said after the game that he didn’t know if the series of events at the end of the first half had a negative effect on his team’s mindset coming out of halftime.
“Well, we can’t let it. I don’t know if it did,” he said. “We came in at half knowing we were doing some very good things. And certainly our guys felt comfortable. They felt physical. And we knew it was going to be a tough game, a close game. Whether that affected us — I don’t know. We certainly didn’t get out to a fast start (in the second half). Two three-and-outs offensively really hurt us to start with.”
Next game
Ole Miss at Kentucky
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Kroger Field (limited spectators)
TV: SEC Network
Records: Ole Miss 0-1, Kentucky 0-1
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Ole Miss leads 28-14-1
Last meeting: Ole Miss won 37-34 on Nov. 4, 2017, in Lexington.
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
