WVU Receives Confirmation That Pitt's End-of-Half Late Hit Should Have Been Enforced

In last week's game versus Pitt, the ACC officiating crew working the game mishandled a penalty at the end of the half, which was a late hit on West Virginia quarterback Nicco Marchiol with one second left. Despite throwing the flag, the officials ruled that it was the end of the half because the Mountaineers didn't have a timeout to avoid a 10-second run off.

Even without any timeouts, the Panthers should have still been penalized for the late hit by either having one untimed down where West Virginia would have kicked a field goal or having it enforced on the kickoff to open the second half. To just completely wipe it away is something I've never seen before.

On Thursday, West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker shared with Mountaineer fans that he has been informed that the call was incorrect and that the penalty should have been enforced.

“At the end of the first half of the football game with Pitt, an unsportsmanlike penalty (late hit) was called against the Panthers. It has been confirmed to our staff that the rules relating to the interpretation and application of that penalty were incorrect. In an effort to preserve player safety, players cannot and should not be able to commit unsportsmanlike penalties with no consequences. Player safety should always be at the forefront of our minds. It is my understanding that all NCAA football officials were sent information this week on how the penalty should have been enforced.”

Yes, West Virginia would go on to win the game, but it may not have had to go to overtime if the penalty had been enforced and WVU had a chance to kick a field goal right before the half. If it had been assessed on the opening kickoff, the Mountaineers would have had much better starting field position.

Unfortunately, that was just one of many missed calls throughout the night that the crew got wrong, and both teams were impacted by certain calls/non-calls.

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