After Saturday’s 28-21 loss to Notre Dame, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh made it clear he wasn’t pleased with the officials:
We got a couple of bad calls. It’s hard to imagine people don’t know football any better than that. Maybe I’ll be swayed differently after I see the replay, but from what I saw on the field, I still can’t get over it. It was a really bad call. It should have been our ball and a touchdown for us.
Unfortunately for Jim, there were two problems with those comments:
- The officials were correct. Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen confirmed that the call was correct.
- Pac-10 rules prohibit coaches from commenting publically on officiating.
I’m a big Jim Harbaugh fan, but he really should have kept his mouth shut this time.
Any idea who the head official was in that game?
Referee was Jack Folliard
I watch the whole game and the crew did a great job under very difficult circumstances. The players were constantly at each other but they refs kept the lid on things. The KCI was absolutely correct (the kick hit the back of the kicking team player while the receiver was trying to catch it). But for the coaches antics on the field and rants to the press it was a routine call very, very typical of most KCI type fouls!
It’s amazing how a coach with assitance from the media can “create” a controversial call.