Matt Rhule addresses issues with Big Ten officials, replay reviews following Ohio State-Nebraska game

Matt Rhule, and any other Nebraska football fan watching the Nebraska-Ohio State game on Saturday, could easily see and hear that there were problems with Big Ten officiating throughout the entire game.

The referees at Ohio Stadium consistently spotted the ball incorrectly – sometimes by at least a full yard – and overall mismanaged the game throughout with poor judgment calls on both offensive and defensive pass interference, holding calls that either went called or uncalled and plenty more examples littered throughout a sloppily officiated game.

Eventually, the officiating all helped lead to the Buckeye fans in attendance hitting a fever pitch and showing their anger by throwing water bottles, plastic alcohol containers and other small items onto the field in protest of the poor officiating. It was an ironic turn of events as the Huskers very clearly had more issues to gripe with than Ohio State in regard to the officiating.

Evidently, the Big Ten league office agrees.

On Monday, the Big Ten Conference released an official statement about the officiating in the Huskers’ game against Ohio State. Via the statement, released by the league’s Chief Operating Officer Kerry Kenny, the Big Ten acknowledged the officiating in Saturday’s game by specifically focusing on just one of the calls made by the team of referees.

The full written statement:

“During Nebraska’s final drive of the first half, on second down with two yards to gain on the Ohio State 39-yard line, the ball was incorrectly spotted after a run by Cornhuskers RB Emmett Johnson. The ball carrier crossed the 37-yard line, and a first down should have been awarded to Nebraska. Replay should have stopped the game to review the spot since it involved the line-to-gain.”

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Following an Ohio State missed field goal in the second quarter, the Huskers took over at their own 24-yard line with 2:02 remaining in the first half. Nebraska then moved the ball to the Buckeyes’ 39-yard line on an 8-yard pass from Dylan Raiola to Isaiah Neyor to set up a 2nd-and-2 play with the clock ticking down to the 1:11 mark by the time the ball was snapped on the ensuing second-down play.

Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson then took a shotgun handoff from Raiola, powered through the line for a gain of a little more than 3 yards. Johnson, without question, cleared the line to gain (Ohio State’s 37-yard line) by at least one full yard to where the ball should have been spotted at the Ohio State 36-yard line.

If called correctly, the Huskers would have had a new set of downs with a 1st-and-10 play and more time to work with during their two-minute drill. The clock should have stopped at the 1:05 mark after the first down and then restarted once the officials ruled the ball ready for play.

Instead, Johnson was ruled short of the first down with the official inexplicably marking the ball at the Ohio State 38-yard line.

“Second down and two (yards), they hand off for the first down,” FOX play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson said as the play unfolded. “It looks like they have the first down; a minute and counting remaining in this first half, 14 to 3, Nebraska driving.”

“Woah, what’s going on here?” FOX color analyst Joel Klatt interjected. “They didn’t get the first down, it wasn’t awarded them, they haven’t taken their last timeout, and they’re having to get their big players on the field in order to try to get the first down. A lot of time wasted here, even though they’re on the plus-side of the 50-yard line.”

Facing a 3rd-and-1 from the 38-yard line instead of rightfully being awarded 1st-and-10 from the 37, the Huskers substituted out a few of the players on the field for Johnson’s 2nd-and-2 run in order to put in their heavy offensive package for the short-yardage play. Running back Dante Dowdell then took a handoff, picked up three yards to move the chains, and the Huskers were set up with 1st-and-10 from the Ohio State 35-yard line.

By the time Nebraska snapped the ball for that third-down play, 35 seconds had ticked off the clock (from 1:05 mark at the end of Johnson’s run to the 0:30 mark by the time of the snap on Dowdell’s run), and Nebraska had to burn its final timeout of the half with 26 seconds remaining following Dowdell’s run.

“That’s a frustrating sequence for Nebraska because they feel like – and Gus, I know you had it on your call as well – they got the first down, they got a clock stoppage and they can just continue on this two-minute drive,” Klatt said. “But then when it’s not awarded them, the clock is running, they don’t wanna call the timeout there. So, they have to go big and get that bigger package on the field so that they can then get the first down.”

The FOX broadcast then showed a replay of Johnson’s second-down run, and Klatt was beside himself after rewatching it: “I gotta tell ya, I feel like they got a TERRIBLE spot, and then it’s not reviewed. I mean, he’s over (the first-down marker) by a yard, yard-and-a-half. They spotted him short, and the clock started to run. That was a MAJOR mistake by the officials, and now that’s why they had to waste the timeout after they had just gotten the first down in order to try to get the right personnel back on the field.”

The officials then added insult to injury.

Raiola hit Thomas Fidone for a five-yard gain on the next play and had to spike the ball with 15 seconds for a 3rd-and-5 play from the Ohio State 30-yard line. Coming off a timeout by the Buckeyes, Raiola threw the ball toward the front of the end zone on a pass targeting Neyor.

The Husker receiver was called for a 15-yard offensive pass interference after the officials ruled that he had pushed off of Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke. Johnson and Klatt initially believed that Burke was going to be penalized for pass interference and, once again, Klatt was incredulous at the ref’s call.

“That’s a huge mistake by Neyor, both clock and field position,” Klatt initially said as FOX began to show the replay, but his tune changed instantly upon seeing the OPI that Neyor was flagged on. “That’s not offensive pass interference. That’s not pass interference on either player.”

Klatt appeared to be on the verge of saying the call was “embarrassing” but stopped himself before saying, “I’m with Matt Rhule there. My goodness. Across college football in every single game – well, football in general, NFL, college – the offensive and defensive pass interference call is just SO inconsistent. That is a bad call, and it just took Nebraska out of potential field-goal range. That’s terrible.”

Johnson and Klatt proceeded to bring up a controversial offensive pass interference called two weeks prior on Ohio State as the Buckeyes drove for a potentially game-winning field goal. Then, once again, Klatt had the FOX producer show the replay of Johnson’s run on 2nd-and-2.

“Gus, you called it a first down, and you were right because he got it by a yard-and-a-half,” Klatt said. “They didn’t give them the first down, which is why they had to burn the timeout. Watch, you see the official, he’s running up, and that’s a yard off. But because of that, the clock didn’t stop, they burned all that time, they had to use a timeout, then they get an offensive pass interference call that’s, like, a phantom call. That’s rough.”

FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira – former 14-year college football official who spent two years as an NFL official and more than a decade in the NFL officiating front office – then joined the broadcast.

“That whole sequence was so bizarre because I kept seeing the clock run when they had the first down,” Pereira said. “I think the official actually got confused with who had the ball, it wasn’t where he spotted it. And then replay should have stopped that and made the correction. It’s just a bizarre sequence.”

Nebraska, facing a 3rd-and-20, was able to salvage what became a 54-yard field goal attempt by kicker John Hohl after Raiola once again found Fidone, this time for a pickup of nine yards to the Ohio State 36-yard line with five seconds remaining. Hohl converted the kick, setting a program record for the longest made field goal on the road by a Nebraska freshman.

That statement, released to the media on Monday afternoon, came just minutes before Rhule walked to the podium to field questions – about both the loss at Ohio State and the upcoming game against UCLA – at his regular Game Week press conference.

He was asked to give his thoughts on the Big Ten’s statement and acknowledgment of the incorrect ruling – plus the mistake of not stopping the game for a replay review – but that mistake was far, far from the only one that the officials made in the Nebraska-Ohio State game.

The most egregious was the consistently incorrect spotting of the ball after Nebraska plays. There were several of them, but the most notable were the Johnson run, Raiola’s 3rd-and-5 run in the first quarter in which he was ruled two yards shy of the sticks to set up a 4th-and-2 near at Nebraska’s 39-yard line (he was clearly one yard shy, which would have set up 4th-and-1 at the Nebraska 40-yard line) and arguably the worst of them all was a 3rd-and-goal run from the OSU 6-yard line by Jaylen Lloyd in which the receiver was marked down at the 2-yard line (he very clearly should have been marked down at the 1-yard line).

Nebraska elected to punt after the Raiola third-down run. Nebraska sent in its jumbo goal-line package after Lloyd’s run, called a run play for Dowdell, and he was stopped about 8-12 inches shy of crossing the plane when, theoretically, he would have cleared the goal line with room to spare if the officials had not marked the ball a full yard shorter than it should have been marked.

On Monday, Rhule was asked for his thoughts on the Big Ten’s statement. It was not the first time that Rhule has either voluntarily brought up – or been asked to address – Big Ten officiating, the inconsistency in judgment calls and problems with video replay review during his time as Nebraska’s coach. The most notable such times were following the Michigan State game last season – when he addressed a poorly called game and, more importantly and more inexplicably, the failures in the Big Ten replay review office in both the game against the Spartans and earlier in the season at Minnesota – and following the Purdue game this season when the two teams were flagged for a combined 24 penalties for 259 yards.

Below is the full transcript of Rhule’s 1,165-word response that stretched across a span of 5 minutes and 20 seconds – by far the longest of any of his responses during his 30-minute, 15-second press conference – as he proceeded to talk without interruption about Big Ten referees, officiating across all of college football and the current replay review system.

Watch Inside Nebraska’s video of the press conference in the video above – and on our YouTube channel – and Rhule’s discussion about officiating from the 7:20 mark to the 12:40 mark.

“Well, I’ll first say this: I commend the league for putting out a statement. The worst thing I can do is get up here when I’m trying to get our team to turn forward against UCLA and be talking about the calls that went against us in a loss. I think that’s very forward thinking of commissioner (Tony) Petitti and of Bill Carollo, who’s the head of officiating, and I think it’s what should be done. We all just want transparency in everything. You guys (the media) come here, you guys ask me, ‘What happened on this play? What happened on that play?’ I do my best to be transparent and answer them. So, I appreciate the statement.

“That was a game, you guys hear us talk about situational football, we’re trying to master the last drive of the half, the last drive of the game. When you have one timeout, and you think it’s a (first down and a different) spot, it just makes it hard to coach. That was difficult. And they addressed it. And that’s really all I want.

“I will say this: I think one of the hardest jobs in the world right now is to be an official. I grew up in a day, an era, when I played college football where I stood next to coach (Joe) Paterno, the officials went out there, they had their whistles, they flew their flags, there weren’t 52 camera angles because every game’s on national TV, they flew the flag, and you lived with it. Coach Paterno would yell at the officials, but that’s just kind of how football was. Now, we’re in a world where we have instant replay. The first instant replay was to overturn the egregious stuff where now we can fix things. Like, last week against Indiana, there were three seconds on the clock, and all of a sudden now there’s six seconds left. Now, as an official when I’m calling the game, I’m calling the game on controversial calls as if, ‘Well, what happens if it does get overturned?’ So if it’s close to being a fumble, like if they think the guy’s down, but they’re kind of instructed to call it a fumble so that the play continues, and then replay can overturn it. But replay, if it’s close, will go with the call that stood, even though that may not be what the official thought (initially). The amount of things that must be in those guys’ heads, God bless them, and then there’s 100,000 people (in the stadium), and they’re running backwards trying to say, ‘Is it DPI? Is it OPI?’ It used to be that the officials had to go over and talk to each other. Now, they have a microphone and they’re talking to each other during the game, and they’re confirming things.

“I just feel for them. So, I’m never gonna get up here and complain about judgment calls. That’s not my thing. I’ve been upset, or I’ve talked about, replay. Like last year, we had three replays where they said the next day, ‘Hey, replay was wrong.’ That’s hard for me. It used to be that replay was in your own building. You would see the replay official before the game, and he was gonna go up (in the press box) and make the call. Now, replay goes off to a central sight somewhere. It’s probably the best system in the world. I just advocate for the players, I advocate for the coaches, I’m also gonna advocate for the eight guys out there calling the game. I’m gonna sit there and give them my opinion, at times, but I never cross the line. I do wanna say this because I want my daughters, I want every person in Norfolk, Dicamba and everywhere in the state: Both times I’ve gotten a flag this year, the next day they said it should’ve never been a flag. I don’t disrespect officials, I stay on the field, I coach the way I’ve coached the last 12 years – aggressive but (respectful). No one on my sideline talks to officials. Officials will always tell you we’re disciplined. So I appreciate the statement, but I do wanna say it must be really hard to be out there making those calls. There was a really controversial OPI in the Ohio State-Oregon game. They called offensive pass interference, so what ends up happening is over the next couple weeks, there are all these points of emphasis and all this stuff. They’re talking about OPI, (another group is) talking about OPI, and then all of a sudden we show up and we get two OPIs – on the last drive of the half and on the last drive of the game. You guys have watched us, I don’t know how many OPIs we’ve had this year. But these points of emphasis that kind of hit you each week. Something happens, and we change the kickoff return mechanics. As a coach, I can’t change what an 18- or 22-year-old does on three days’ notice. We went through camp, we go through all the officiating training, we have officials come to practice, we’re told to do things a certain way, and then as the season goes on and as things happen, man, the officials have to adjust. Well, we have to adjust, and all of a sudden you get in a game like this and all this stuff happens.

“I appreciate the transparency. I do wanna make sure everyone understands where I stand, though: I advocate for the officials. I think we should let them call the game, and it shouldn’t be all this (inconsistency). It shouldn’t change as much as it does based upon this and that. We should just let them call the games and live with the result like we live with the players’ result. I appreciate that (statement), some tough things went against us, we’ve had replay go against us, we’ve had my penalties go against us. I don’t want anymore apologies on Sunday. It can’t happen against UCLA, it can’t happen against Iowa, these things can’t happen moving forward. I’m very forward thinking, I appreciate Bill, I appreciate Tony, I appreciate Troy (Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen), I appreciate everybody, but it can’t keep happening to us. It needs to be fair. That’s not about the guys making judgment calls. They’ve got a tough, tough, tough job. Just tell us what the rules are, and we’ll kind of go from there. That’s my take, I hope it’s OK that I say that. But we’re not gonna sit here and whine about whether (a penalty) was a hold or not. During the game, I’m gonna yell. When (Ohio State) false started, I yelled, ‘Hey, that’s a false start.’ Not hold or no hold, ‘That’s a false start.’ But then the play’s over, we play the next play. And we gotta play better. Before we can worry about the officials, we need to worry about ourselves.”