Well, this will go down in college football history as one of the weirdest special teams plays ever.
On Saturday, during the fourth quarter of the Mississippi State and Memphis game, the Bulldogs kicked what seemed to be a routine punt down the field while down 21-17 to the Tigers. Archer Trafford’s punt looked to be downed by Mississippi State below the 10-yard line, but instead… chaos broke out.
Calvin Austin III picked up the ball for Memphis and went 94 yards for the ensuing touchdown. Instead of Mississippi State pinning Memphis deep in their own end, the Tigers took advantage of a Bulldogs blunder to widen their lead to 28-17.
Here’s how the tomfoolery went down.
WTF JUST HAPPENED pic.twitter.com/LGMWxtCKZW
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 18, 2021
Yeah that’s… a confusing one! It really does look like the referee signals the play dead — as he even throws the marker down to mark the spot — as the Mississippi State player rolls over the ball in an attempt to down it.
You can even see the referee raise his arms to down the ball as well in this clip with the ESPN commentators ripping into the play.
ESPN commentators rip refs in Memphis-Miss St game over bizarre punt return football TD pic.twitter.com/omphpkJtSK
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 18, 2021
So, did the refs get this wrong? Well, yes but also, no. There’s a reason you play to the whistle in football so you don’t run afoul of these situations. Mississippi State’s punt return team absolutely botched their assignment of clearly downing the football.
At the same time, it’s rough that the referee was making the motions of calling the play dead as it happened. In total, it’s a subjective gray area of a rule, which did Mississippi State in as they lost 31-29 to Memphis in the end.
Mississippi State’s dudes had to play to the whistle on this. I’d have blown the play dead but this is straightforward bad work by their special teams unit to not secure the whistle https://t.co/OwxLhrm03Q
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) September 18, 2021
Even worse for Mississippi State, Memphis should have been penalized on the play for having two players wearing No. 4 on the field.
Even crazier… Memphis had two players wearing the #4 on the field on that play. Should've been a penalty on the Tigers. https://t.co/beZoH9139V
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 18, 2021
What a rough way to lose a game.
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