Officiating coordinator explains controversial call in ND-FSU game
Rogers Redding, the NCAA’s national coordinator of football officials, explained that the pass interference penalty that negated Notre Dame’s would-be touchdown late in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss to Florida State was the correct call.
“This is correctly called as offensive pass interference and the penalty was correctly enforced to erase the touchdown,” Redding says in the below video.
After the touchdown was reversed, Notre Dame faced a fourth-and-18 situation with less than 15 seconds remaining, and quarterback Everett Golson threw a game-ending interception.
During a news conference on Sunday, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly questioned the decisive call.
“Actually, I have less clarity,” Kelly said. “I guess it was actually called on Will Fuller, not C.J. (Prosise) Just adds more uncertainty as to the final play.
“Again, the play itself in terms of what we ask our kids to do, it was pretty clear what happened on the play. Florida State blew the coverage and they got rewarded for it. So it's unfortunate.”
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Kelly said he learned after the game that the officials flagged Fuller. As Irish Illustrated points out, that disputes the official box score saying the penalty was called on Prosise.
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said Monday that he thought the play was called correctly.
"When it's ran like that, it gets called most of the time because it was an obvious pick play," Fisher said, according to CBSSports.com. "We run pick plays. We don't teach 'em like that. We do a totally different technique. I thought it was exactly the correct call and I thought it should have been called in the first half."
Notre Dame (6-1), ranked 7th in the latest AP Poll, plays at Navy on Nov. 1 while No. 2 Florida State (7-0) plays at Louisville next Thursday.
- Chris Johnson
