Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome snap of the second quarter. Tuitt and Pitt quarterback Tom Savage collided on the play as the latter tried to scramble for a first down. Both players dropped their heads as contact approached and butted helmets. Tuitt's ejection is the latest case to file with the weekly complaints coming from all corners of college football about the new controversial targeting rule. While made with the best of intentions, the rule is both difficult to enforce and a routine game-changer for defenses that lose valuable players. "We have a problem," Kelly said. "We all recognize that. It's a real shame that a young man misses a game. I think we all recognize that is has to be dealt with, but we just can't deal with it until the end of the year." Referees reviewed Tuitt's hit on instant replay, as they do with every targeting penalty, but didn't see sufficient evidence to change their minds. Representatives from the Atlantic Coast Conference stood by the call after doing their own examination two days after the game. For Notre Dame, it was the second time this season that a defender had to leave the game because of a head-to-head hit. Junior linebacker Ben Councell missed part of the second half of a loss to Oklahoma and the first half against Arizona State for his hit on running back Brennan Clay. Kelly appealed that decision (and lost) on the grounds that there was no intent to injure Clay on the play. The rule in question defines targeting as taking "aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with an apparent intent that goes beyond making a legal tackle." Kelly said when he asked for an explanation about Tuitt's hit during the Pittsburgh game the official told him they stuck to "the letter of the law." General sentiment among football's rules makers is to remove judgment calls whenever possible, but enforcing "the letter of the law" when it comes to "apparent intent" seems to be an inherent contradiction. In this case, Kelly said he'd like to see a little more common sense injected into the targeting rule's enforcement in the future. "I think that a lot of reasonable people can get together in a room and understand that when somebody is intentionally using their helmet to inflict harm that that's pretty easy to see," he said. "We also know when someone is trying to make a play and inadvertently the helmet is part of the ATTENTION IRISH FANS Packages are available for all Notre Dame home games during the 2014 season 2014 Opponents Aug. 30 Sept. 6 Oct. 4 Rice Michigan Stanford Future Dates announced soon Packages Include: * Game Ticket * Hotel Please visit Diamondtravel.com 602-870-9197 26 years in business