UVA tailback Taquan Mizzell was flagged for an illegal formation penalty for lining up more than five yards off the ball on an onside kick with 1:16 to go.
Mizzell recovered the kick, but it was for naught. Virginia was penalized five yards and forced to re-kick. Louisville recovered the kick and ran out the clock.
“On the onside kick, what I was told, one of our guys – you’ve got to be at least five yards from the ball when you line up,” Virginia coach Mike London said after the game.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what the call was. I’d never heard of it before,” Mizzell told reporters after the game.
This screenshot taken from the game highlights makes it clear. Mizzell was more than five yards off the ball. It was a smidge, literally, if you can say that a smidge is something that can be defined as being literal.
It wasn’t much.
But it was the right call.
“We do kickoffs all the time. We’ve done onside kicks before,” London said. “They said one of our players was beyond five yards, so, again, we can go back and look at the tape or the film or something to corroborate if that’s the case. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that call.”
It’s been corroborated, and it was the right call.
Another one of those that none of us had ever seen called before, but the right call.
– Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
