Tyler Booker pushes back against unnecessary roughness penalty vs. Georgia

Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker wants answers from the SEC after he was called for unnecessary roughness against Georgia on Saturday. The play occurred late in an eventual 41-34 win for the Crimson Tide and resulted in a 15-yard penalty.

Booker was blocking on the play and pushed Bulldogs linebacker Smael Mondon to the ground after the receiver who caught the ball was already several yards downfield. Referees deemed it to be unnecessary as Mondon likely wouldn’t have caught up to make the tackle, but Booker sees it differently.

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“My coaches told me that they’re going to send that into the SEC to see how I should go about it next time,” he said according to Alabama beat writer Mike Rodack. “Because we both were chasing the play. Like, who knows how that play could have happened. We could’ve sped up and stripped the ball and had 7 points going the other way. I was just doing my job and playing football.”

Booker always working…. pic.twitter.com/Evmir4UhSs

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Teams have the right every week to submit what they consider to be questionable calls to the SEC league office for review. Although it obviously can’t change a call that was already made, it can help officials realize where they made a mistake and also help players to better understand the rules.

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Tyler Booker spoke with his coaches about the penalty and acknowledges that next time, he would do things differently considering Mondon wasn’t in position to make a play. He’s curious to see what the league office has to say.

“Coach DeBoer brought up a great point,:” Booker said. “He said the guy wasn’t going to make the play. It really wasn’t going to affect the play. So next time, keep going. But that mental edge that I have, I’m always trying to get someone on the ground within the rules. During the time, I thought that was within the rules.”

Regardless of the penalty, Alabama got the result it wanted to improve to 4-0 on the season. The Crimson Tide will move on to face Vanderbilt at 3:15 p.m. CT on Saturday in Nashville.