Forced touching on OU's onside kick not reviewable
NORMAN—Whether freshman Trejan Bridges was blocked into the ball during Oklahoma' s on side kick in the final minutes of its game against Kansas State was not reviewable, Big 12 coordinator of officials Greg Burks said on Monday.
The rules say replay can look at timing of blocks and touching by the kicking team, Oklahoma, but not forced touching. So during the review Saturday, the officials were only looking to see if Bridges touched the ball illegally.
“I know there's been discussion about forced touching, but I want to clarify that if you don't have a touch ruled on the field, you obviously can't have forced touching,” Burks said.
“Even if you did the question of forced touching is not something that falls under the replay review guidelines.”
Burks said he doesn't believe forced touching occurred anyway.
The ruling on the field was a recovery by Oklahoma with 1:43 left to play, but the reversal of the call gave the ball to Kansas State and ultimately sealed the Sooners' 48-41 loss. Bridges touched the ball at the 44-yard line, before it had gone 10 yards.
The replay Saturday took about three minutes, Burks said, which is twice as long as the time the officials typically attempt to have the review finished. Burks said extra time was taken to make sure they had every TV angle and a clear shot of the touch.
“Everybody was on board” to review the play because of how significant it was, he said. The “everybody” he is referring to includes the referee on the field who has a monitor — something new this year — the replay official at the stadium, the replay official at the officiating center in Dallas and Burks himself, who was also at the officiating center in Dallas, as he is every week.
“If we didn't have actual film, we wouldn't have changed the ruling,” Burks said. “We couldn't assume.”
Burks spoke with Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley about all of this, and explained everything that was and wasn't reviewable.
“Our conversation was around the rule, and he expressed his thoughts that that should be part of replay,” Burks said.
Riley spoke about his conversation with Burks on the Big 12 coaches conference call Monday morning. He echoed what he was told him about forced touching not being reviewable.
“It's a tough call, it's a bangbang call,” Riley said. “It's happening pretty fast. When it went to replay, it just kind of one of those gray areas or one of those areas where, at least the rules right now, prevent replay from looking at it or from being able to decide if he was blocked or not. It was a restriction of the rules in replay that just did not go in our favor.”