Nick Saban addresses the bizarre not-targeting, not-safety, not-roughing the passer call vs. Texas
Texas downed Bryce Young in his own end zone early in the third quarter during Saturday’s bout between the Longhorns and Alabama. But Young launched a pass as Texas players smacked into him. Was it targeting? Intentional grounding? An outright safety? The refs could barely decide, and let the Crimson Tide keep the ball for the ensuing fourth down, ruling it simply an incomplete pass.
At Monday’s press conference, Tide coach Nick Saban was asked to rehash the madness. He detailed the play in full from the way he saw it unfold.
“Well, first of all, the way they called the play — roughing the quarterback, with targeting — they can’t review roughing the quarterback. It’s not reviewable, but they did. So they not only took off the targeting where there wasn’t any targeting, Bryce was not down when he threw the ball. One of their players actually touched the ball, so that didn’t make it intentional grounding. And we did have a player in the vicinity.”
Nick Saban then assured everyone that he wasn’t pointing figures or throwing a fit over the way it was officiated.
“So it never got explained really well, but I’m giving you the facts. Now, maybe it just got announced wrong, you know, that it’s roughing the passer with targeting. They can review targeting, but not roughing the passer. So I don’t know what happened with all that. Kind of is what it is. But I’m not complaining about it. I’m not criticizing anyone. You ask me what happened, how it got explained to me. That’s basically what got explained to me.”
For more background on the wild series of events on that third-down play, read below.
Would-be Texas safety ends in penalty, review chaos in Horns vs. Alabama
With Alabama backed up to their own goal line in a tie game, Bryce Young took the snap and looked downfield. However, jubilance took over the field for Texas as they took the Alabama quarterback down in the end zone, presumably for a safety. Then, a flag was thrown and no one could’ve predicted what could’ve come next.
Referees called roughing the passer and targeting on the play, then going under the hood to review it.
As confusion reigned supreme throughout the stadium, the referee Scott Campbell made a fascinating ruling on the play, claiming the original call was an incorrect statement by the ref.
“After review, there is no foul for targeting, or roughing the passer,” Campbell told the crowd. “The foul was described incorrectly to the referee. The foul that was reviewed was the targeting, as there was roughing the passer called. Fourth down.”
So somehow, Young escapes without being taken down for a safety, and the ruling on the field becomes an incomplete pass. Just a wild turn of events as time ticks off during the third quarter of the showdown.