BYU TRIP BRINGS BACK CONTROVERSIAL CALL
‘Replaygate,’ the fumble that wasn’t, still rankles SDSU fans to this day
A decade has passed since the fumble that wasn’t.
Some San Diego State fans are still fuming about it. There are those who might never get over it.
It was Week 5 of the 2010 season and SDSU was visiting BYU in Provo, Utah, where Aztecs victories can be counted on one hand using only a thumb and index finger.
It was the third quarter when BYU running back JJ Di Luigi fumbled the ball at the SDSU 25-yard line, where Aztecs defensive lineman B.J. Williams recovered.
Television replays clearly showed the ball came loose before Di Luigi’s knee touched the ground.
The officials did not rule a fumble, however, believing Di Luigi’s knee was down, and an SDSU challenge was not successful in getting that ruling overturned.
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BYU scored five plays later, taking a 10-point lead in what became a 24-21 win.
After the game, there was frustration that replay officials didn’t see things the way SDSU did but also the realization that challenges often don’t work out.
More than that, it was another SDSU defeat to throw onto the pile of frustrating losses — and a tie — over the years against the Cougars.
“It’s been a long time,” SDSU head coach Brady Hoke said this week. “I thought we played pretty well up there.
“If I remember, there was a replay that didn’t go our way that we would have liked for it to go our way, obviously.”
SDSU (4-3) returns to Provo for the first time since the fumble that wasn’t when it plays No. 18 BYU (9-1) on Saturday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“If I remember ...”
How could anyone forget
Two of SDSU’s most painful memories against BYU are imprinted on the brain by the final scores. 63-14 in 1979.
52-52 in 1991.
This one has a name: “Replaygate.”
Hoke, SDSU’s head coach then as now, seemed upset but not outraged at the time.
“I wouldn’t have challenged it if I didn’t think we got it,” he said after the game. “My opinion is it was a fumble. But those things happen in football.”
The story would grow legs, as they say, over the following week as more and more facts on the matter came to light.
Two days after the game, Mountain West officials suspended the three-man crew that worked the replay booth for missing an obvious call.
It wasn’t clear then whether the call was missed because of human error, a breakdown in communication or technical difficulties, although it was confirmed replay officials had the same video feed as TV viewers who saw evidence of a fumble.
“I don’t know where they fell short,” Hoke said. “They were given the feed. I don’t know if the technical official gave the feed to the replay official. I don’t know how it works in the box. I just know the feed was available to them and they didn’t use it.”
A perception of ineptness turned to conf lict of interest concerns as the week progressed, when it was revealed a BYU athletic department official and a Cougars alum were among the three members of the replay crew that botched the call.
BYU video coordinator Chad Bunn, a BYU graduate, was the technical adviser to the head replay official.
Bunn hung up on a reporter that week when he was contacted for comment.
It was not reported whether Bunn inf luenced the decision on the review in question, but it did raise the perception of bias.
The seriousness of the situation drew national attention, and, in fact, Mountain West athletic directors had an emergency meeting on the matter.
Mountain West officials did not comment on what happened in the booth, which is consistent with its policy when it comes to officiating.
Jim Sterk, who was SDSU’s AD then, said conference officials told him “it was human error somehow and the video official did not see the video everyone else saw.”
By the end of the week, the Mountain West announced a new policy banning school employees or alumni from working as one of the three replay officials for games in which their school was a participant.
Such a ban previously had only extended to onfield officials and the head replay official who makes the final decision on whether to overturn a call after a replay review.
“If there was any way to get the game back or started again at this point, I’d love to,” Sterk said, “but there’s no real precedent for that, so I think this is the appropriate action to take at this time.
“You don’t ever want that to happen again.”
Did the loss spur the Aztecs on to bigger things?
Hoke didn’t answer that directly this week, choosing instead to compliment the leadership of SDSU’s senior class as well as solid play from quarterback Ryan Lindley and his receivers — led by Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson — and running back Ronnie Hillman.
SDSU won four straight games and five of its last seven regular-season contests after the BYU loss.
That delivered the program’s first bowl berth in 12 years — a 35-14 win over Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl — and started an unprecedented decade-long run of bowl appearances.
Upon further review ... “It was a heck of a football game,” Hoke said. “We wish we had won it.”