You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more obvious targeting penalty than the one Maryland’s Lavonte Gater committed on Friday.
During Maryland’s game against Illinois, the Fighting Illini were working their way down the field in a 0-0 game. As Illinois quarterback Brandon Peters launched a 40-yard pass down field, Gater came in late on the play and delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit, giving the Maryland defensive back a roughing the passer penalty as well.
The play also went to review, upon which targeting was tacked on after Gater launched at Peters with the crown of his helmet. Here’s how the play went down in Champaign at the end of the first quarter.
Lavonte Gater got ejected after being called for targeting against Brandon Peters
(via @CFBONFOX) pic.twitter.com/PLMBbO1bln
— SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) September 18, 2021
Yeah that is… definitely as obvious of a targeting call as you can get, honestly. The egregious Superman leap — while impressive — was absolutely too over-the-top for the situation.
Definitely a textbook targeting call here, so good on the officials for getting this right.
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