Zakoby McClain apologizes to Auburn fans following controversial penalty

Auburn linebacker Zakoby McClain has given an apology after an ejection for targeting in Saturday night’s loss against Penn State. The targeting call came on Auburn’s one-yard line, giving Penn State a fresh set of downs. Penn State went on to score shortly after, taking a 28-20 lead. While the call was controversial as targeting usually is, McClain took to Twitter to apologize after the game.

“I apologize Auburn family,” McClain tweeted. “I love y’all I promise ya we gonna shake back!!”

McClain appeared to have led with his shoulder on the hit

On the play, it appeared as if McClain led with his shoulder, not his head. McClain will now have to sit out of the first half of Auburn’s next game against Georgia State.

Targeting rules need to change if this is going to be called targeting pic.twitter.com/XiTAcyWpEX

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) September 19, 2021

Many believe that McClain’s hit was clean. ESPN College GameDay analyst Desmond Howard is one of them.

“That was an awful targeting call,” Howard said.

The NCAA has seen a lot of criticism this season for the inconsistency and frequency of targeting calls. In Week 1, Ole Miss and Louisville combined to have four players ejected in the first half for targeting. The rule seems to change from officiating crew to officiating crew, making it more of a judgement call. For a rule with the major consequences that targeting does, most people want to see more consistency. Auburn’s McClain is only the latest person to be on the wrong end of a controversial targeting call.

“Reality is, targeting would get changed tomorrow if the suits weren’t afraid of litigation and appearance of backtracking on safety,” FOX personality Joel Klatt tweeted during Week 1. “However, if they were actually concerned with safety wouldn’t they adopt NFL game clock rules to lower volume of total snaps?

“The problem with targeting?” Klatt went on to say. “It is officiated wildly inconsistent and yet carries the most punitive consequences! Must be addressed! We need to only eject in egregious and malicious occurrences. Targeting 1 (15 yards), Targeting 2 (15 yards & ejection).”

McClain is one of many players to be on the wrong end of a controversial targeting call, and this one was big in Auburn’s loss. Auburn falls to 2-1 after the loss. The Tigers face Georgia State and LSU over the next two weeks. After that, Auburn has four consecutive games against Top 25 teams.