The eyes of the college football world fell upon Ann Arbor on Saturday for the 121st edition of “The Game” between Ohio State and Michigan. The heated rivalry is regularly one of the most-watched regular season games of the college football season, and Saturday’s tilt is likely no exception.
Amid a hard-fought and low-scoring first half, one critical replay review proved to hold massive implications to how the rest of the game would play out. No, it wasn’t a Michigan player headbutting a referee.
Ohio State, going for it on a crucial 4th-and-5 on Michigan’s half of the field during the second quarter, found star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith for a go-ahead touchdown. But upon further review, it appeared Smith may have lost the ball before going into the end zone, before regaining control in an out-of-bounds position. By rule, if Smith lost the ball prior to crossing the goal line and didn’t regain control until he was out-of-bounds, Michigan would’ve been granted a touchback.
As all scoring plays are reviewed, the game’s officials took a long look at Smith’s touchdown before ruling it would be upheld, giving Ohio State a 10-6 lead midway through the second quarter.
After the game, head referee Kole Knueppel was asked about the play, and explained why the call wasn’t overturned. “We did not have a camera angle to determine when the ball was loose as opposed to when it crossed the goal line,” Knueppel said, per NBC’s Columbus affiliate. “So by rule, if we don’t have an angle to confirm by obvious video evidence that the ball was loose before he crossed the goal line, the play is going to be upheld.”
It’s not uncommon for calls on the field to be upheld when there’s not a clear camera angle to confirm what happened on the play. However, it’s surprising that this would be an issue during a game of this magnitude. To be fair, Fox did have several decent angles of Smith’s near-fumble, but nothing that showed he had definitively lost the ball prior to crossing the goal line.
Knueppel’s answer seems to suggest that the replay officials thought Smith could have lost control of the ball, but simply didn’t have the video evidence to overrule the call on the field. A reversal could’ve changed the course of the game, but Michigan didn’t do much to prove they were up for the task on Saturday anyway.
Ohio State pulled away in the second half, securing a convincing 27-9 victory of their rivals.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.