Silverfield says SEC officials apologized

They were in error over onside kick ruling

The referees at Saturday's Memphis-missouri game apologized to Memphis after incorrectly saying players could not kick an onside kick without a tee, Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield said Monday.

Silverfield said his team had practiced onside kicks without a tee leading up to Saturday. Late in the game against Missouri in St. Louis, Memphis (3-1) lined up for an onside kick hoping to get the ball back. Silverfield said he told the officials he wanted to attempt the kickoff without a tee, and that it would be a legal play.

"But the SEC officials told me I was wrong, and I didn't know what I was talking about," he said. "I told them that once again, in some type of polite terms, that they were incorrect, and I know the rules. And they told me no, that they were going to penalize us and wouldn't let us kick an onside kick unless we had a tee touching the ball, which is not right.

"They were wrong. They admitted their mistake. But like a lot of those things, the mistakes and apology the next morning do us no good."

Missouri (4-0), which is in the SEC East Division, recovered the eventual onside kick and went on to win the game 34-27.

Silverfield said Monday he was frustrated by the situation, especially after someone sent him a video from Saturday's Oregon State-washington State game that showed an onside kick without a tee.

Still, he didn't want to use it as a reason for the loss.

"No excuses," he said. "We shouldn't have put ourselves in a position where we had to kick the onside kick, but (it was) an error by the SEC officials, which they openly admitted."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @thejonahdylan.