HawgBeat - Pittman comments on Arkansas-Florida officiating
Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman commented on two controversial calls during Saturday's game against Florida.
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For the first time in program history, the Arkansas Razorbacks (3-6, 1-5 SEC) defeated the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with a 39-36 overtime victory on Saturday.
The much-needed win didn't come without some controversial officiating calls, however — something that has plagued the Hogs in Gainesville before.
With 44 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter and tied at 33 apiece, Florida only needed a field goal to win the game. The Gators drove 49-yards down the field in just five plays to set up for a potential game-winning 44-yard field goal.
With no timeouts left, the Gators were scrambling and substituting players in and out while preparing for the field goal attempt. Instead of allowing Arkansas to substitute players in as well — which would have likely led to time expiring with only eight seconds left on the game clock — Florida was penalized five yards for an illegal substitution and subsequently had another opportunity to win the matchup.
The officials ruled that because the clock was stopped due to a Florida first down, there would be no 10-second runoff on the game clock. Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Monday that he talked with the SEC Coordinator of Officials John McDaid about that sequence.
"It was just they made a mistake," Pittman said. "They didn’t go into substitution protocol. And their opinion and my opinion, if they would have, eight seconds to get there. Basically to get their field goal unit off the field. Get their team on the field, give us three seconds before we have to substitute, those eight seconds are gone, and honestly that field goal attempt should have never been attempted."
Following the penalty, Florida kicker Trey Smack lined up from 44-yards out and missed the go-ahead field goal. It was a breath of fresh air for the Hogs, who have lost five one-possession games this season.
"Luckily for us, I don’t know how you feel if the good Lord has an opinion about who wins or not," Pittman said. "He’s got a lot of things going on, but lucky for us — and I hate it for the young man — but luckily justice was served on that one."
The substitution penalty wasn't the only controversial call of the game, though. Earlier in the fourth quarter, it appeared that Gators wide receiver Eugene Wilson III was stripped of the football by Arkansas defensive back Jaylon Braxton. Instead of Braxton earning his second strip fumble of the day, the officiating crew blew the play dead due to forward progress.
Soon after, the Gators took a 26-23 lead off of a 34-yard field goal. Though it didn't matter in the end, a fumble in that situation could have drastically changed the game for the Razorbacks.
"On the situation where they ruled him down or no longer advancing the football, my only thing with that was, if that’s the call then they had another player that came in and wiped out everybody standing there (pushing the guys from behind)," Pittman said. "In my opinion, that should be a 15-yard penalty after the play is dead. So I didn’t think it couldn’t be one or the other. It’s either our ball or they’ve got a 15-yard penalty."
Up next, Arkansas and Auburn will face off at Reynolds Razorback Stadium at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
