ESPN rules analyst disagrees with no targeting for James Williams' high hit on Jordan Travis

Miami safety James Williams narrowly avoided being ejected for targeting against Florida State on Saturday night. After a short review, the officials determined his hit on Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis early in the fourth quarter didn’t meet the conditions for enforcing the penalty.

The home fans didn’t agree, nor did ESPN/ABC rules analyst Matt Austin. He explained his issues with the no targeting call with Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy, who were equally perplexed by the call.

“I’m a little surprised they didn’t call targeting because the defender lowered his head, looked like he hit the crown of the helmet right on the tip of the face mask and then turned the quarterback’s head sideways. I think this is targeting.”

The refs say there is no Targeting on James Williams pic.twitter.com/3wxnx9BTxg

— NMD Grant (@NMDgrant) November 11, 2023

McElroy agreed with Austin, referencing the fact that the officials had already appeared to miss a call in the first half, a potential safety for Miami.

“I agree, Matt. It looked like the crown of the helmet. That’s what initiates the contact. That should have been targeting, it’s as simple as that. That’s another missed call, I don’t understand it,” McElroy said.

Florida State appeared to dodge a safety on a dodgy call in the first half

There was a highly questionable call made by officials in the Florida State-Miami game on Saturday that could prove costly. Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis was clearly tackled in his own end zone by Miami defenders.

It appeared to be a safety, but officials ruled that the whole football was not completely in the end zone as he was going down. The broadcasters on the ABC telecast said they will look for more clarification on how the referees made their decision at halftime, which didn’t come.

This wasn’t called a safety for Miami.

It was REVIEWED and not called a safety. pic.twitter.com/xjsDyI8qL4

— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) November 11, 2023

An ACC representative explained the non-safety call

The play quickly went viral as fans wondered how it didn’t result in two points and the ball for Miami. An ACC representative told the Miami Herald’s Susan Miller Degnan the officials followed the rule because Travis got hit, initially, in the field of play.

“The rule is where the ball is when initial contact is made by the defender,” the representative said.

The call occurred on a 14-yard sack of Travis by Wesley Bissainthe when FSU held a 10-7 lead over Miami. Ultimately, the drive ended with a punt, and the Hurricanes got a last-second field goal to tie things up at 10-10 heading into the break.

Miami then came out of the second half with another field goal to take a 13-10 lead.

At halftime, ABC’s Molly McGrath spoke with Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal about the no-call and she said she got a passionate, NSFW response.

“I asked Mario Cristobal about that non-call on the apparent safety at the end of the half. He immediately started yelling expletives,” McGrath said on the broadcast. “He was very emotional saying there were two calls in the first half that felt unfair to him. But he said … the key to success for them was running the ball well.”

On3’s Wade Peery and Nick Schultz contributed to this report.