Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/216396
Under the Dome A Growing Chorus Irish head coach Brian Kelly doesn't stand alone when speaking out against the new targeting rule, its implementation and its consequences. Kelly is one of many prominent head coaches who have questioned different parts of the rule during interviews this fall. Many of them disagree with a part of the rule that allows referees to overturn an ejection with replay without overturning the accompanying 15-yard penalty. Here's a sample of what some familiar names have to say: Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer: "The NCAA and everybody is going to want to relook at that rule. We at Ohio State are very concerned about player safety. We have gone to the nth degree with adjusting practice. Any rule for the safety of players, no question we support it. However, that was a game changer. To take one of your better players out of the game, that Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, along with many other college coaches around the country, feel that the NCAA needs to impacted that game." Florida head coach Will Mus- revisit the targeting rule and changes need to be made. Photo by Per Kjeldsen champ: "I think we need to go back to the commissioners and let them make the decision the same way Commissioner [Roger] Goodell does in the National Football League — sit down and watch the tape with Steve Shaw, who's the head of officials, who does an outstanding job for our league, and determine if it was a malicious hit or not." Former NFL head of officials and current FOX analyst Mike Pereira: "I vowed never to talk about targeting again because it's my least favorite rule in NCAA football." Alabama head coach Nick Saban: "Personally, on the rule itself, if you can review a play to say a guy should be ejected or not be ejected, to me, you should be able to review if it was a penalty or not a penalty. That's not what the rule is." Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops: "You would like to see the penalty part of that maybe done away with when you see that it's a perfectly clean hit. In the end you would think that if you're going to review it and you see that it's a clean play, you'd think you would throw the flag away, too, but that's just how it is right now." Texas head coach Mack Brown: "If we're going upstairs, let's be fair to the teams, too. Let's take it back. Let's make it fair and do what's right. To me that makes so much sense, it's too simple." — Dan Murphy