A replay ruling early in Saturday’s matchup between BYU and Arizona State sparked criticism from FOX Sports rules analyst Mike Pereira and drew the ire of Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham.
On second-and-goal from the 1-yard line, BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier fumbled, and officials initially blew the play dead, ruling forward progress stopped. BYU retained possession at the 1.
Upon further review, however, the call was overturned and ruled a BYU touchdown.
Officials credited Sione Moa with recovering the fumble and crossing the goal line. The touchdown stood, giving the Cougars a 7-0 lead.
Play-by-play announcer Connor Onion asked Pereira during the FOX broadcast whether BYU could legally advance the fumble and what prompted the reversal.
“This is not the type of situation that you have when the runner steps out of bounds where you can give him continuing action,” Pereira said. “This was a player that recovered the ball and got up in the field of play. The ruling on the field was the runner was down initially, and if that’s the case, you’ve ruled it dead.
“You can give a recovery, but you can’t give an advance unless we’ve come up with a new rule here, which I’m not too sure that you can really do,” Pereira said.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham questioned the officials’ ruling after a replay review gave BYU a touchdown. (Photo by Aaron Baker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
FOX Sports analyst Robert Griffin III, working the game alongside Onion, sided with Pereira and validated Dillingham’s frustration.
“Mikey P is 100% correct,” Griffin said. “Kenny Dillingham is justified in being frustrated about this situation because now this is three weeks in a row where we’ve had Big 12 officials just making up rules as they go.”
Dillingham contended that the whistle had blown, signaling the play was dead.
Pereira agreed with the coach, though he noted the whistle’s timing was not the decisive factor.
“Kenny is right,” Pereira said. “You can forget about when the whistle happened. They killed the play in the field of play, and the ball was out.”
Pereira suggested the sequence reflects a pattern he has observed in recent weeks involving Big 12 officiating crews.
“This is getting kind of frustrating week to week,” Pereira said. “We shouldn’t have these situations.”
