Joel Klatt blasts officials for controversial reversal in Georgia-Texas, offers solution for college football

A major talking point of Texas‘ 30-15 loss to Georgia on Saturday was the controversial Longhorns interception in the third quarter.

Defensive back Jahdae Barron intercepted a pass and returned it to the Georgia nine-yard line in what was a major momentum-swinging play. The play was called back for a defensive pass interference, much to the dismay of fans inside DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, who began littering the field with trash. After the referees reconvened, they eventually reversed the call.

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt blasted the officials for overturning what he believes is a subjective call.

“The officials throw a flag for defensive pass interference — an egregiously bad call, by the way, terrible call — but as I have stated over the course of the last few weeks, officiating is bad everywhere,” Klatt said. “In every game there was terrible calls in our game. The officiating in college football right now is really poor — really poor. And most of the bad calls are centered around pass interference, which, to the official’s credit, or defense, impossible to officiate.

“I mean, I understand, but this one, it’s like, oh my gosh, that is a bad call. Georgia player runs into the Texas player they’re fighting, and then it’s a pick, and all of a sudden the flag comes out. Number one is, it was a bad call. Number two is, then chaos erupts, as we all know, bottles on the field, [Steve Sarkisian] is going over there, holding up his hands. During that time, the officials have time to confer … and meanwhile, the officials have had a chance to, like, look up at the jumbotron and be like, ‘Oh, man, that was a terrible call.’ — And they changed the call.”

Klatt said that was like rewarding candy to a kid throwing a tantrum in the grocery store. He looked at this situation as the referees allowing the crowd to get away with littering the field with trash by reversing the call.

Controversy about the incident has ensued since it happened, and Klatt has the perfect solution to bring everyone together on this topic.

“The fix is in the UFL,” Klatt said. “The UFL has a super challenge. Every coach has one super challenge, any call, anytime they throw a challenge.

A Super Challenge allows the head coach of a team to specifically identify and challenge any officiating decision on the field, but can only do so as long as they have at least one timeout remaining. This can be used in non-reviewable situations, such as a hold or pass-interference call.

“And now what you’re doing is you’re creating a system where officials can get back together, then they can review it, and they can all chime in, rather than just one guy in the heat of the moment throwing his flag,” Klatt continued. “Everybody can be like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think that that call should be reversed.’

“And then everybody knows that that’s just the process of the super challenge. So the crowd knows there’s a process for a super challenge, so they don’t need to throw a fit.”

There have been incidents of fans littering on the field in the past, most notably in recent seasons during Lane Kiffin’s return to Neyland Stadium which featured a bottle of mustard being tossed onto the turf. Still, Saturday’s debacle may be the deciding factor in trying to ensure moments like these don’t happen again.