NCAA RULES HURT GATORS IN FIELD-GOAL CALL
GAINESVILLE — Florida freshman kicker Evan McPherson stared at the offifficial, his hands spaced more than a foot apart, his face in disbelief.
Moments earlier his 36-yard field goal attempt had appeared to sail successfully through the uprights, cutting Kentucky’s third-quarter lead to one possession in the process.
But the officiating crew positioned underneath the goal posts saw it di ff ff ff ff ff ff e rent ly.
McPherson’ s kick was ruled no good, drawing an impassioned reaction from his teammates and coaches and a roar of jeers from the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium crowd in the process. Kentucky eventually won 27-16.
Subsequent replays confifirmed McPherson’s attempt should have been deemed a successful fifield goal, yet confusion remained as to why no review had commenced on a blatant error.
“I was saying review it,
(but) apparently you can’t review it,” wide receiver Josh Hammond said.
According to the NCAA’s rulebook concerning reviewable plays, fifield goals are eligible for review only if the attempt does not extend past the 30-foot upright.
McPherson’ s kick did appear to exceed the mark by less than the length of a football, leaving Florida helpless. At best, the Gators were the unfortunate victim of human error. At worst, the blown call was a potentially game-changing sequence for a team looking for any piece of momentum to latch onto Saturday night.
Coach Dan Mullen, visibly irate at the time at what had occurred, of ff ff ff ff ff fe red no explanation for the bl under, directing all questions to those in charge at SEC headquarters.
“I mean, t here’s a guy whose job it is to stand under the goal post and call whether it’s good or not. He said it was no good. So there’s nothing else I can do about it. That was his responsibility,” Mullen said. “Would be a good question for him or (SEC director of officials) Steve Shaw. That’s nothing to do with me.”
A rare situation, sure, yet Mullen is mistaken in that it’s an NCAA decision rather than a rule specifific to the conference, and Saturday was hardly the fifirst time a program has been deprived of a potentially game-altering fifield goal due to an offifficiating error or limitations of the rule book.
The 2015 Pinstripe Bowl featured a shootout between Indiana and Duke that lasted until the fifinal whistle, when Hoosiers kicker Griffiffin Oakes had a chance to hit a game-tying 38-yard fifield goal with his team trailing 44-41 in overtime. Oakes’ kick appeared to sail over the upright and in, but the offifficiating crew deemed it a miss, much to the dismay of the Hoosiers and Oakes, who, like Hammond and the Gators, pleaded for a review.
The NFL has the same rule in place regarding the review of fifield- goal attempts, and it led Patriots coach Bill Belichick to draw a hefty $50,000 fifine in 2012 for arguing that Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker had in fact missed a fifield goal that offifficials incorrectly declared a successful kick.
Yet the New England head coach helped institute a fifix that has so far prevented a repeat of the controversy in the NFL — he introduced a rule prior to the 2014 season that simply extended the height of the goal posts from 30 to 35 feet. It was an expensive fifix — each goal post that meets NCAA requirements often costs between $5,000 and $6,000, an engineering study by Gilman Gear revealed, and raising the height 5 feet cost “considerably more.”
The main take away, though, is that Florida’s goal posts stand 30 feet, meaning McPherson’s kick seemingly
would have been a reviewable play in the NFL due to a rule intended to help offifficials make the correct call.
Point aside, the Gators can’t control the mistakes of an offifficial, and they can’t expect special treatment regarding NCAA-wide rules. What happened may have been unfortunate, but it was within the guidelines of the game. Saturday’s loss also came with the reminder that some aspects of the game are beyond a player’s control.
“I thought it was good and the fans thought it was good too,” wide receiver Van Jefferson said. “( Offifficials) made the call, so we couldn’t change it. So it is what it is.”
‘He said it was no good. So there’s nothing else I can do about it. That was his responsibility.’ Dan Mullen
Florida coach