Doc;s Diagnosis: Iowa Punt Return
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00:00 Welcome back to the Doc's Diagnosis presented by Census Federal Credit Union.
00:04 I'm Travis Justice.
00:05 He's Dr. Rob Zadiska.
00:06 Now, don't get upset because I know we usually talk about Nebraska plays on this, but we're
00:10 actually going to do an Iowa play.
00:12 This is a great play.
00:14 Yeah, well he was happy about it.
00:15 It's an interesting play because it was talked about nationally because this is something
00:20 you see a lot, but it's never called that often.
00:24 I will concede, under the letter of the rule, it's a 100% correct call.
00:29 I understand it.
00:30 I'm going to disagree with you just because I think this gets called more often than you
00:36 think.
00:37 It just gets called maybe in a situation where the game's not necessarily on the line and
00:43 the touchdown in question isn't a game changer.
00:48 From what we've been able to see, Rob, the last time this was called was 2015 in a Wisconsin
00:52 game.
00:53 So, the actual invalid signal rule.
00:55 We're talking about the Iowa-Minnesota game.
00:57 So let's go to the video.
00:58 This is Cooper DeJean.
00:59 Now, Cooper DeJean, hell of a player by the way, one of the best college football players,
01:03 period, right?
01:04 He's a preseason defensive player of the year.
01:06 This is him fielding a punt.
01:08 Now watch, he's pointing, pointing, and waving.
01:10 He's waving.
01:11 He's waving.
01:12 Do you think that's a fair catch?
01:13 Do you think?
01:14 I think it's an invalid signal and my opinion is that when you're looking at this and that
01:21 arm's moving like that, I understand he's waving guys away.
01:27 When you look at the play, downfield, literally 15 yards downfield where that ball first bounces,
01:34 there's other Minnesota and Iowa players that he's waving off.
01:38 I get that.
01:39 But hold on.
01:40 He's waving here.
01:42 There's nobody behind him.
01:44 He doesn't have to be waving.
01:45 Nobody can see him.
01:46 He doesn't have to be.
01:47 Dude, all of these guys down here that we can't see on the screen that he's yelling
01:54 at can see him waving that arm.
01:59 It doesn't matter that there's nobody behind him.
02:04 It's not like people are blind to that waving and we get to the full screen here.
02:12 This is after we had the full screen up.
02:14 So we can go back to the full screen.
02:15 Let's watch the full screen here.
02:17 So here's the punt.
02:19 He's waving.
02:21 That's enough of a hand motion that guys can see it.
02:25 And so I understand he's waving guys off.
02:28 I get that.
02:29 The problem is whether you're waving guys off or truly signaling a fair catch, anytime
02:37 you have a guy moving his arm like this right here, any arm motion, they're going to call
02:43 that an invalid signal.
02:45 I've seen ... Now, here's the thing.
02:47 I know you said you've only found it going back in like 2015.
02:51 I see this every so often and what usually happens and the reason it doesn't get out
02:58 there into the media as, "Well, this is where we saw this called," is because usually what
03:05 happens guys do the whole like, "Yeah, I'm going to call a fair ... You know what?
03:09 I'm going to catch it and run."
03:11 And they take one step, ref blows their whistle, "No, no, no.
03:14 You moved that arm.
03:16 He's dead."
03:17 And nobody thinks twice about it because it's not a game on the line where he took it for
03:23 the potential game-winning touchdown.
03:25 It happens, I think, fairly often where I see it and guys do sort of that half-assed
03:30 wave, decide to catch it, run, take one step, ref blows the whistle, that's it, and nobody
03:37 thinks twice about it.
03:38 Then why didn't they blow the whistle here?
03:39 They should have.
03:40 They should have.
03:41 I'll give you that if they ... The problem here, the controversy here is the fact that
03:49 they didn't call it at the time and kind of what everybody thinks happens is that ... So
03:55 the ref said, "Hey, we're going to review it."
03:58 And the original review was to see if he was out of bounds.
03:59 Did he step out of bounds?
04:01 That was the original review.
04:02 And I understand that and if that's what they're reviewing and he didn't step out of bounds,
04:08 here's my question, can you go back and call that in hindsight?
04:14 I thought it's kind of like the pass interference thing.
04:18 Can you review a play for one thing and then come back and say, "Oh, there was pass interference
04:24 on that that we didn't call.
04:26 We're calling pass interference now."
04:28 That's not reviewable.
04:29 Something like this is actually reviewable.
04:31 So I guess I'm going to put it this way.
04:33 So it's a reviewable play.
04:34 It's a reviewable play.
04:36 They didn't go to the monitor originally to review it, but you can find out.
04:40 The behind the scenes concern, however, amongst the Iowa faithful is that they think P.J.
04:49 Fleck was sitting there going like, "Hey, while you're reviewing the potential out of
04:55 bounds step, take a look at his arm."
04:58 And listen, there are Nebraska fans celebrating this and I get it.
05:01 I understand it.
05:02 I always do.
05:03 I'm a Nebraska fan.
05:04 I'm not celebrating it.
05:06 I'm just saying technically everything was within the rules.
05:11 It just cost Iowa the game.
05:13 So I always say put yourself in your seat.
05:17 If that happened in Nebraska, what would people do?
05:18 Pissed as hell.
05:19 Yes.
05:20 I get it.
05:21 If you're the fan of that team, you're going to be pissed as hell.
05:25 Trent Condon.
05:26 Yep.
05:27 So KXNO guy.
05:28 Yeah, I work with Trent.
05:29 So he had a great take on this.
05:32 Did this cost Iowa the game?
05:34 Yes, it did.
05:36 But he also said the other thing to keep in mind is the fact that Iowa had, what, 11 carries
05:43 for .4 yards per carry is really what cost Iowa the game and is way more egregious than
05:51 this.
05:52 It's one of those things when your offense is that bad, all of these little things get
05:59 highlighted and as Nebraska fans, believe me, we understand that because when we lose
06:05 a goddamn game and we get a disconcerting signal called against us, those are the little
06:12 margins that make you lose games when your offense is this bad or your defense is this
06:17 bad or your special teams are this bad.
06:20 When you're Nebraska over the last several years, that margin is so thin.
06:28 Every little thing matters.
06:30 That's where Iowa's at right now.
06:33 Every little thing matters.
06:34 So you have, I don't know if calling it a mistake or a mistake by the rest that they
06:40 didn't blow it dead at the time, highlights it all of a sudden and now you realize, man,
06:47 there's a pretty thin margin Iowa's winning these games by.
06:50 100% agree.
06:51 I think it could have a weird precedence here.
06:54 That is, if you get a punt return of 20, 30, or even a touchdown, you're going to have
06:59 a coach now saying, "Nope, he believed his arm."
07:01 Because technically, I see where you have a problem with this.
07:05 The pointing at the football technically is an invalid signal.
07:08 I don't know, is that saying?
07:10 I'd be hard pressed to say refs are going to call it back on that.
07:16 In a situation like this where he's waving guys off and there's this very gross moment,
07:23 there's like three big arm movements like that, that's an obvious one.
07:29 The ones that are going to be questionable is where a guy's just running up to the ball,
07:34 moves his hands up to catch it, is that going to be construed as an invalid signal now?
07:40 Here's what I like about the sport of football.
07:42 Nuance.
07:43 Nuance.
07:44 And you learn something new every day.
07:45 I mean, this is one of those things you're like, "Wow, totally forgot or didn't even
07:48 know about it."
07:49 So you do learn something new all the time.
07:50 Hey, disconcerting signals.
07:53 It's real.
07:54 It does not happen just to Nebraska, but when it does, all of a sudden you realize what
08:01 these little nuances are and how it can affect a game.
08:04 So that was a long doctor's diagnosis, but if you want to hear us talk more about this
08:09 play and of course the Nebraska-Northwestern game, make sure to check out this week's
08:13 DocTalk podcast presented by VetFriend Sports.
08:16 For Dr. Rob Zadiskin, I'm Travis Jesses.
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