Pac-10 officiating has been something that football fans have questioned for years. Stanford football Head Coach Jim Harbaugh won’t talk about the officiating as a whole but he did feel there were a number of questionable calls during Stanford’s 33-14 win over Arizona State.
There were a couple of plays on Arizona State’s first touchdown drive that Harbaugh was not thrilled with. The first was a pass interference call on cornerback Quinn Evans that opened up the drive.
“The explanation we got was he was not looking back for the ball, which does not make it pass interference” Harbaugh said. “And he contacted the receiver early which I did not see from the game copy or the TV copy. I really thought when the flag came out that it would be offensive interference.”
Harbaugh also noted that on the touchdown pass a few plays later the wide receiver made contact on Evan’s face mask to gain separation, a penalty that was not called.
The other big play that drew Harbaugh’s ire was the touchdown pass to Coby Fleener that was called back by an illegal formation penalty.
“Ryan Whalen was on the line but he was not covered up,” Harbaugh said. “Stepfan Taylor was outside of Ryan and it was as good looking a formation as you are ever going to see. It was a blown call.”
Harbaugh did ask the referees to review the formation but he was told that it was not a challengeable play.
“It is a sad thing,” Harbaugh lamented. “That is a touchdown the team needed at that point of the game. 11 guys out there executed it perfectly. Andrew Luck threw a touchdown and Coby Fleener caught a touchdown and these youngsters are not getting credit for that.”
In all his honesty, Harbaugh also said that he would not have thrown a flag on the hard hit by an ASU defender against Owen Marecic after a long reception. Officials called it a personal foul for helmet to helmet contact which added to the already successful play.
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