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ESPN broadcast criticizes SEC officials for missed penalty on out of bounds Tennessee player hitting Brock Vandagriff

IMG_0985by:Griffin McVeigh•11/02/24•

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Kentucky Football | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
Kentucky QB Brock Vandagriff, via Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Kentucky fans are not the only ones upset about a missed call on quarterback Brock Vandagriff early in Saturday’s contest against Tennessee. The broadcast criticized the officials for not throwing a flag after Vandagriff was seemingly shoved to the ground after the play by Omarr Norman-Lott.

Adding to the moment, Norman-Lott was not a part of the play when the moment occurred. He watched from the sideline and Vandagriff ran out of bounds near him. As ESPN’s Tom Hart watched the moment again on replay, he was shocked a flag was not thrown by the SEC crew.

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“He got popped as he came to the sideline by Norman-Lott, who put his hands out,” Hart said. “Omarr Norman-Lott is a defensive lineman and acted like one on that two-yard run. He said ‘Do you want to come over here? Meet my hand.’… That is a big miss by this officiating crew.”

Color commentator Jordan Rodgers was in agreement with his play-by-play man.

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“I’m a little surprised a flag wasn’t thrown here,” Rodgers said. “You got to flag that. It wasn’t ‘You ran into my extended hands.’ He was extending the hands.”

You can check out the full play here.

Either way, there is not much the officiating crew can do after the missed call. Play continued and Kentucky was in a third-and-long situation instead of getting a potential 15 yards and an automatic first down. On the other side, it’s a nice break for Tennessee.

Vandagriff has done a nice job leading the Kentucky offense thus far, having a 7-0 lead in Neyland Stadium. Tennessee has struggled to put up first-half points in recent weeks and through at least one quarter, the trend has continued. Kentucky putting up as many points as they can early may be key to pulling off what would be a huge upset win for head coach Mark Stoops and the program.