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Hoch, Crowder and Solana share their take on the controversial ending to the Miami Hurricanes - Notre Dame game Saturday night that cost the Canes a game tying Elija Lofton touchdown.
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00:00My personal opinion, Elijah Lofton caught a touchdown pass Saturday night for the Miami Hurricanes.
00:10It wasn't ruled a touchdown.
00:13Just telling you, in my opinion, Elijah Lofton caught a touchdown pass.
00:17And I understand all the explanations.
00:20For my money, he possessed the ball in the end zone.
00:23Feet were down.
00:24That's a touchdown.
00:25It doesn't matter to me.
00:27I'm not going to bitch and moan.
00:28The game is over.
00:29I'm not going to ask for a recount.
00:31I'm not going to tell you it was fraudulent.
00:33I feel like, personally, I feel like the Hurricanes got robbed of a touchdown Saturday night in South Bend when
00:42they desperately needed a touchdown.
00:44I do understand the rule.
00:48And it's probably more important to address the rule than it is that actual play.
00:56Right?
00:57So, the rule for a receiving touchdown is different than the rule for a rushing touchdown.
01:07And there's probably a better question there is, does that make sense?
01:12Right?
01:13So, if you're running and the ball crosses the goal line, no matter what happens after the second, the millisecond,
01:22a ball crosses the goal line, that's a touchdown.
01:26Receiving is a completely different animal.
01:28You have to make a football move.
01:30The problem that I have with Saturday night was the so-called football move that Elijah Loftin was making was
01:38taking place out of bounds.
01:40So, for my money, the catch happened in bounds.
01:44You only need one foot in college.
01:46He had two feet down.
01:47Two feet down.
01:48Ball is possessed.
01:51And that's the end of the story for me.
01:53I get the explanations.
01:54There are rules experts who obviously know more about it than me.
01:57I'm just telling you, for my money as a Canes fan, that looked like a touchdown, looked like a touchdown
02:02that didn't get counted as a touchdown.
02:05And, you know, I'm guessing we'll never agree with Notre Dame fans on that one.
02:11Yeah.
02:12And I'm with you.
02:13I came in halfway through.
02:14I'd get my closet reception together.
02:16But I know what you're talking about.
02:19The rule, the refs called the rule correctly because you have to finish the catch.
02:23It's what happened.
02:24Remember, there's Brian on the goal line when he used the ball to catch his balance.
02:27You didn't complete the catch.
02:29It happened to T.O. like 20 years ago.
02:31If the rule flawed, you can argue that.
02:33If that's not a catch because of the rule, it's not.
02:36He didn't complete the catch.
02:38He didn't make a football move afterwards.
02:39Right.
02:40But the question to me is, so you have to continue making a football move once you're out of bounds.
02:46It just seems incongruous to me to everything we know about football, which is the moment it's out of bounds,
02:52nothing counts.
02:54And in fact, if you're out of bounds and come back in bounds, that doesn't count because the out of
02:59bounds, that is the line of ending anything that goes on on the field.
03:04So that that for that, like, that's just one of my hangups again.
03:09By the letter of the law, it was probably called correctly.
03:12The rule is flawed, though.
03:14It should just be the same rule for a rushing touchdown that it is a receiving touchdown.
03:20Either or.
03:21Either you have to finish a football move when you're rushing the ball over the goal line, or you don't
03:26have to do some cockamamie finishing of the football move once you have possessed the ball in the end zone
03:33with two feet down or one foot down in college.
03:36And this probably won't clarify anything.
03:40But if he didn't drop the ball, it was a touchdown.
03:43But he would have completed the catch out of bounds.
03:47Right.
03:47Which is saying the rule is flawed.
03:49If that ball is not knocked out of his hand, so he catches it, he puts the feet down, and
03:53he tucks it to his chest.
03:54Doesn't make a football move.
03:55Just falls sideways out of bounds like a corpse.
03:58That's a touchdown.
03:59Right.
04:00It just.
04:02Yeah, you're right.
04:03Like, the rule is crazy, but to the letter of the law, he didn't complete that catch because he didn't
04:08make a football move.
04:09He didn't have space to make a football move.
04:11The argument is legit.
04:12It's about the rule, Hawk.
04:13I'm glad you brought that up because I knew this was going to be a topic today.
04:16Play the sound, Jimmy, of Mario Cristobal.
04:19This is after the game.
04:20This is in the heat of the moment.
04:21This is at the postgame press conference.
04:23He's talked with Joe Rose this morning, and he said, I'm not talking about it anymore, and he's got his
04:28press conference today, I think, in the 3 o'clock hour, so I'm sure he'll be asked about it.
04:34But this is Mario Cristobal after the game.
04:37You know, I'm pissed off, so what do you want me to say?
04:39I mean, it's bullshit, and I'll leave it at that, and again, that's the way it was seen by them,
04:44so I got to live with it and respect it, and our players got to live with it, and we
04:48got to do better, and you know what?
04:49Again, don't leave it in the hands of the officials.
04:52Play better.
04:52Coach better.
04:53Find a way to win, but again, I don't need to be criticizing officials.
04:57I just need to move on.
04:59Yeah, and I'm with that.
05:00It's BS, but also don't leave it in the hands of officials.
05:04Do your business during the rest of the hour that you have on the field, and you know, you won't
05:10get to that point.
05:11I wasn't, you know, I wasn't like distraught after that game.
05:13I thought a team without Malachi Tony, going to a hostile road environment and playing a very good Notre Dame
05:21team, to be within a touchdown at the end, I was okay with that.
05:26Hulk, I'm actually, and this is positive, it's not me trying to put lipstick on a pig or whatever they
05:31call it.
05:32I didn't think they could have a chance of winning the national championship without Malachi Tony.
05:37That second half swung my thought process.
05:40I don't know what took them so long to say, hey, let's throw the ball to Barkay a bunch of
05:44times and see what happens.
05:45Let's see if Lofton can get open.
05:46We brought those names up when Malachi was out.
05:49Now, the run game, I tell you that too now.
05:51I know they have pride in the O-line.
05:53Them damn Notre Dame deep tackles were whooping our ass up front.
05:56But those past two catches, Lofton and Barkay, they can, I want to say run an offense through them like
06:02Malachi,
06:02but you can put together a 30-point game plus with those two guys as you're one and two.
06:07I think what happened is Mario came out of the box saying to himself,
06:12I'm going to play the football game the way I want to play it,
06:15which is going to be slow and plotting, running the ball.
06:20We're not going to have the weaponry on the outside because Malachi's not there.
06:25And then I think they figured out after halftime, oh, wait a second, what you just said.
06:29Like, Barkay's good, Lofton's good, there is weaponry, and Darian Mensah's a damn good quarterback.
06:36Like, so, it just, it was what it was.
06:40Again, the game was a whole heck of a lot more meaningful to Notre Dame than it was UM
06:44just for postseason chances.
06:46And next year with a 20, was it 29 teams now?
06:5034 teams?
06:5275 teams now in the college football playoffs next season.
06:56It won't matter at all.
06:58But it was what it was.
07:00Listen, they were in it, they competed, and, you know, can argue until we're blue in the face
07:08whether Elijah Lofton had a touchdown catch taken away or not.
07:12You know, Hurricanes fans, we will go down for the entirety of our lives saying Cleveland Gary
07:17did not fumble that ball.
07:19Elijah Lofton caught that touchdown.
07:22And what was it, Bo Porter?
07:25Was that the ref in the Ohio State game?
07:27Terry Porter.
07:27Terry Porter.
07:28Terry Porter.
07:29Bo Porter was the Marlins bench coach.
07:31Terry Porter called a penalty about 19 minutes after the game had ended, and there was all,
07:39and people were already on the bus driving home, and then Terry Porter decided to throw a flag.
07:45Solana, your take on it?
07:47What was your take on the Elijah Lofton grab?
07:49Yeah, I'm surprised at how easygoing you are about it.
07:53I realize what you're saying.
07:54Like, you're taking this, a very rational approach to it.
07:58And, Crowder, you're just a bandwagon fan, so I don't expect you to be emotional about it.
08:02I'm pissed still.
08:03You can't cause a fumble out of bounds.
08:06You can't cause an incompletion out of bounds.
08:09Two feet, you only need one.
08:11Two feet in bounds, he has possession, his foot then steps out of bounds, touchdown.
08:17I don't care what happens after that fact.
08:20That's a touchdown based on the rules.
08:22You can't cause an incompletion or a fumble out of bounds.
08:27That was a touchdown.
08:29No, to have possession, you have to make a football move.
08:32So that's not possession.
08:34No, he doesn't.
08:35He had possession because you want him to have possession.
08:37We're speaking of rule possession.
08:39But, in other words, to Solana's point, is it fair that he's not allowed to complete his football move
08:48when an opponent is continuing to play when the play's already out of bounds?
08:55You know what I mean?
08:56Like, the ball doesn't move until he's out of bounds, and that's because of the Notre Dame defender.
09:02So, is it fair that you're now required to make a football move, and the football move can be broken
09:11up in an area of the field where nothing's allowed to happen?
09:16Not only that, Hawk, but the play shouldn't matter after because his foot has already stepped out of bounds.
09:22If the defender punched that ball out before Elijah Loftin's third step, he got the first two in bounds, then
09:31the third step out of bounds.
09:34Then the defender breaks up the pass.
09:36That's why I'm pissed off, because if the defender had broken that ball up before Elijah Loftin took that third
09:43step out of bounds,
09:43I'd say, hey, he punched it out before Elijah Loftin got out of bounds, that's fair play, the ball's still
09:49very much in play, and it is what it is.
09:52Elijah Loftin steps out of bounds, and then the defender punches it out, Crowder.
09:57Elijah Loftin's already out of bounds, so you can disrupt the play once the player's already out of bounds.
10:06He's already taken a step out of bounds.
10:08That play should have already been called a touchdown.
10:10The play should be dead at that point.
10:12And it makes no sense.
10:14He didn't have possession to the letter of the law because he didn't make a move after it.
10:21No, I'm with the rule is dumb, but you can't say they called it wrong.
10:28That's my point.
10:29I am a bandwagon fan.
10:31I just hate that the Gators suck.
10:32But I'm looking at this from a Iowa Hawkeyes fan.
10:36I'm telling you, the letter of the law.
10:38When y'all sent me the Gene Statutora one, and he's kind of nodding his head with it.
10:44Are they going to change it?
10:45But you know, if you jump up and your feet are going to land in bounds for a touchdown,
10:51but the defender pushes you out of bounds, it's an incomplete pass.
10:55That's a rule that's made in the rule book.
10:57Why?
10:58Because the moment something happens out of bounds, it doesn't count.
11:04It's really the argument for why this shouldn't affect whether a player has possessed the ball or not,
11:11because you're allowing what happened out of bounds to matter and really supersede what happened in bounds.
11:23It's why the rule is dumb.
11:25The rule is dumb.
11:26You can almost have a caveat or a carve-out for that rule, which is unless the football move is
11:33broken up outside of the field of play.
11:37Because really, to Solana's point, in any instance, anything that happens out of bounds, it just doesn't matter.
11:43If you get pushed out of bounds while you're catching a ball, it doesn't matter.
11:46The moment you're out of bounds, it doesn't matter.
11:48This is the only case, apparently, where whatever happened out of bounds directly influences the play that happened in bounds,
11:58and it just seems incongruous and unfair.
12:01If he's on the hash, and I don't know why he would tiptoe his feet on the hash,
12:06but let's just say he jumps up, he's on the hash, he does what he did, comes down, and then
12:12the ball falls out like that,
12:13that's an incomplete pass.
12:15If he is in the field of play, that's an incomplete pass.
12:18That would be the other side of it, but it doesn't make sense.
12:21I'm admitting that now.
12:22It doesn't make sense, but if he was in the field of play, that would have been called incomplete.
12:26It would have been third down.
12:27It would probably be more easy to take if the move that caused him to theoretically lose possession
12:35because he didn't make a football move happened in bounds.
12:37The part that I have trouble with is the fact that the move that caused it to not be a
12:44football move
12:46happened outside of the field of play.
12:48Anyway, Joe Zygacki is going to join us.
12:50He's busy today, so I want to make sure we have time with him.
12:52So let's do a quick look at the headlines.
12:53Joe Zygacki will be on with us in the next segment.
12:56We have tickets for the comedian Russell Peters.
12:59He's coming to Hard Rock Live in December, and we've got a chance for you to win tickets.
13:05Today, we will give away the tickets at 3.20, so make sure you're listening at 3.20.
13:13Tough day to be a comedian named Russell and be trying to sell tickets, but that's where we're at.
13:193.20 for the Russell Peters tickets.
13:22Jimmy just got that.
13:233.20 for the Russell Peters tickets, and we'll have a pair every day this week.
13:28Quick look at the headlines brought to you by Doral Volkswagen, home of the Pricito, our lowest price.
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13:38Football move.
13:39You know what a football move is?
13:40Two hands on the pigskin and a foot inbounds.
13:44Touchdown.
13:44That's what a football move is.
13:46Get out of here.
13:47Everybody's talking about that football move, the football move.
13:49I saw Calvin Johnson catch a touchdown, make a football move, put the ball on the ground to brace his
13:54fall,
13:54and the refs ruled it not a football move.
13:57Not a football move.
13:58Nobody even knows what a football move is.
14:00Again, we've seen this time and time again in the NFL, Moreland College,
14:04so I kind of understand what they're looking for when it comes to a football move.
14:10My real disconnect on this one, again, is that the move that broke up the football move
14:19happened in an area that you're not allowed to do anything.
14:23You're not allowed to continue playing out of bounds.
14:26It's a late hit if you hit someone out of bounds.
14:28So how can you continue to defend the ball and the catch when it's out of bounds?
14:35That's the problem that I really have the disconnect with.
14:39If he keeps the ball in his hand, it's a touchdown.
14:43I would tell Calvin Johnson.
14:46But why should the defender be allowed to punch the ball out of bounds?
14:51Oh, no.
14:52This is where the rule goes bad.
14:53But they told Calvin Johnson, they told Dez, they told T.O.,
14:56and now I've got to tell Mr. Lofton, just complete the catch,
14:59and it's a touchdown on all four counts.
15:01Right.
15:02But if I'm the offensive player, I say, okay, so do we have to continue competing
15:08as if we're in bounds when we're out of bounds now?
15:10Because that seems unfair.
15:12Yes.
15:14It's a flawed rule.
15:16It's a flawed rule.
15:17That's a flawed rule.
15:17You're 100% correct.
15:18Perfect.