Invalid fair catch signal

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85% of Iowa fans to this day think the refs called on review that it was a fair catch signal.

They will argue all day that it was NOT a fair catch signal. And gosh, they are right! It was NOT a fair catch signal. And that is where their ignorance stops them from any further brain growth. They are incapable of understanding the call was INVALID FAIR CATCH. The only reffing error was not seeing it live and blowing it dead when it should have been.

Oh, and of the remaining 15% of Iowa fans are divided among those that think the video review was “illegal” and those like the head coach himself that would rather let the misinformation live on than set the record straight.
 

Does it seem weird that the penalty for an invalid fair catch signal is that they treat it like a valid fair catch signal?
 







bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Does it seem weird that the penalty for an invalid fair catch signal is that they treat it like a valid fair catch signal?
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It's not a penalty, they just give you the ball where it was caught. I don't think they actually throw a flag. I don't think the PSU was intentional in any way as he was trying to change direction and adjust to the ball. His arm was up and he motioned a bit to adjust. Has to be called however.

I thought the Iowa play was more of a deception or a sneaky play.
 
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MaxyJR1 said:
It's not a penalty, they just give you the ball where it was caught. I don't think they actually throw a flag. I don't think the PSU was intentional in any way as he was trying to change direction and adjust to the ball. His arm was up and he motioned a bit to adjust. Has to be called however.

I thought the Iowa play was more of a deception or a sneaky play.
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I would agree. Now, obviously, I am a Gopher fan and can't look at it without Maroon and Gold glasses on. Cooper DeJean was literally one of the best players in the country last year. There is no way in any regard of what he was doing was a natural running movement. He was waving his teammates off - I truly don't think he was calling a fair catch - but the way the ball bounced and he got it, juked out a few Gophers and looked up and only saw green grass. It was an incredible play, but by all definitions of the rule, he waved his arm which constituted as an invalid fair catch signal.
 



MNfootballfan said:
I would agree. Now, obviously, I am a Gopher fan and can't look at it without Maroon and Gold glasses on. Cooper DeJean was literally one of the best players in the country last year. There is no way in any regard of what he was doing was a natural running movement. He was waving his teammates off - I truly don't think he was calling a fair catch - but the way the ball bounced and he got it, juked out a few Gophers and looked up and only saw green grass. It was an incredible play, but by all definitions of the rule, he waved his arm which constituted as an invalid fair catch signal.
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I think the invalid fair catch by DeJean was 100% planned to help bail Iowa out of a desperate situation. It gave him an edge. DeJean had been returning punts for years on one of the perennially best special teams units in the country. He knew what he was doing IMO.
 
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Ope3 said:
Yes. I doubt Penn St fans will manufacture T-shirts though.
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We should manufacture Iowa shirts (with a portion of proceeds being donated to Gopher Football NIL) that are Iowa colored, and read "Yer with stupid."
 

Panthadad2 said:
I think the invalid fair catch by DeJean was 100% planned to help bail Iowa out of a desperate situation. It game him an edge. DeJean had been returning punts for years on one of the perennially best special teams units in the country. He knew what he was doing IMO.
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And if you watched all of his other returns, he never did that before.
 

MNfootballfan said:
I would agree. Now, obviously, I am a Gopher fan and can't look at it without Maroon and Gold glasses on. Cooper DeJean was literally one of the best players in the country last year. There is no way in any regard of what he was doing was a natural running movement. He was waving his teammates off - I truly don't think he was calling a fair catch - but the way the ball bounced and he got it, juked out a few Gophers and looked up and only saw green grass. It was an incredible play, but by all definitions of the rule, he waved his arm which constituted as an invalid fair catch signal.
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Ferentz asked the refs before the game about fair catches in that situation. It was definitely a preplanned attempt to fake out the Gophers.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I think the invalid fair catch by DeJean was 100% planned to help bail Iowa out of a desperate situation. It gave him an edge. DeJean had been returning punts for years on one of the perennially best special teams units in the country. He knew what he was doing IMO.
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I caught a little bit of an Eagles' game a few weeks ago and DeJean is still doing the same thing. It's either a habit he can't break or he simply knows what he's doing. Of course, he's the proverbial "coach on the field" so he absolutely has to be allowed some leeway,
 


WAGopher said:
Ferentz asked the refs before the game about fair catches in that situation. It was definitely a preplanned attempt to fake out the Gophers.
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I would agree. Pretty ironic that he asked about a fair catch…
 


Some guy said:
It isn’t a penalty
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Right. Not a penalty. Just a "dead ball" call. An invalid fair catch signal, which typically slows down, disorganizes or even momentarily freezes the punt return coverage, simply stops an offending punt reception from being advanced. GHer's shouldn't worry if they can't understand this concept. The vast majority of college educated football fans in Iowa are far too dim-witted to understand it. They can't even begin to grasp its meaning.

It would be really fun to see the PSU invalid fair catch signal--a one-time arm wave below the shoulder--split screened with the several-second long series of huge helicopter arm movements DeJean made to confuse the Gophers' punt return defense. Ferentz was desperate, he cheated and almost got a way with it. Except that he didn't.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Right. Not a penalty. Just a "dead ball" call. An invalid fair catch signal, which typically slows down, disorganizes or even momentarily freezes the punt return coverage, simply stops an offending punt reception from being advanced. GHer's shouldn't worry if they can't understand this concept. The vast majority of college educated football fans in Iowa are far too dim-witted to understand it. They can't even begin to grasp its meaning.

It would be really fun to see the PSU invalid fair catch signal--a one-time arm wave below the shoulder--split screened with the several-second long series of huge helicopter arm movements DeJean made to confuse the Gophers' punt return defense. Ferentz was desperate, he cheated and almost got a way with it. Except that he didn't.
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you are spot on 100% correct. I am not sure why, but this one has stuck with me and I can't shake it because of a couple reasons:

1. How unbelievably WRONG the Iowa fan base has remained on this despite the rules being black and white and the call being made correctly after review. We've all seen calls in sports where people disagree (one side feels it IS a foul, the other side thinks it isn't, or one side thinks it was a catch and the other side thinks it wasn't), but this is different. Everyone can agree on exactly what happened, but these Iowa dolts refuse to connect the brain cells that processed what happened with the actual rules.

2. For this second one, I'll admit it is my fault: I have enjoyed pushing Iowa fan buttons on social media. For example, if I see a DeJean Phila Eagle highlight on Tik Tok, I'll throw in a comment like "Invalid fair catch, Gophers win!" comment that means nothing to Eagles fans but there is always some Iowa dufus lurking around willing to have the argument over "It wasn't a fair catch!" Amazingly consistent and amazingly uninformed on the issue. EVERY. TIME.
 

Also add "Fereentz is a cheating jerk" to get a rise out of some Hawk fans. I almost got in a fist fight down here with one.

DeJean was/is a great athlete. But they did try to cheat.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Right. Not a penalty. Just a "dead ball" call. An invalid fair catch signal, which typically slows down, disorganizes or even momentarily freezes the punt return coverage, simply stops an offending punt reception from being advanced. GHer's shouldn't worry if they can't understand this concept. The vast majority of college educated football fans in Iowa are far too dim-witted to understand it. They can't even begin to grasp its meaning.

It would be really fun to see the PSU invalid fair catch signal--a one-time arm wave below the shoulder--split screened with the several-second long series of huge helicopter arm movements DeJean made to confuse the Gophers' punt return defense. Ferentz was desperate, he cheated and almost got a way with it. Except that he didn't.
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In the Penn State case, you can clearly see the tacklers let up the moment he made the sidearm wave from multiple camera positions. In Gopher/Iowa game, the same happened just fewer camera positions. This wouldn't even be an issue if the refs called it in real time.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Right. Not a penalty. Just a "dead ball" call. An invalid fair catch signal, which typically slows down, disorganizes or even momentarily freezes the punt return coverage, simply stops an offending punt reception from being advanced. GHer's shouldn't worry if they can't understand this concept. The vast majority of college educated football fans in Iowa are far too dim-witted to understand it. They can't even begin to grasp its meaning.

It would be really fun to see the PSU invalid fair catch signal--a one-time arm wave below the shoulder--split screened with the several-second long series of huge helicopter arm movements DeJean made to confuse the Gophers' punt return defense. Ferentz was desperate, he cheated and almost got a way with it. Except that he didn't.
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I recognize it's not a formal penalty. I just don't understand the point of the distinction between valid and invalid fair catch signal. If a valid fair catch signal is made and the ball is caught, the ref is supposed to blow the play dead and spot the ball where he caught it. If there is an invalid fair catch signal, the ref is supposed to do the exact same thing. So why have the distinction at all? Why not just broaden the definition of a valid fair catch signal to include the stuff that is now an invalid fair catch signal? Does the invalid fair catch determination give some protection to a defender who hits a player after the invalid signal?
 

I thought an invalid fair catch could be penalized 5 yards. Maybe it's a subjective decision by the refs. Maybe I'm wrong.

Regardless, the punt returner can be tackled on an invalid fair catch as there is no valid fair catch protection. If it's seen on game tape that a punt returner does this often, might as well prepare to blast them.
 

Was it E.T. Intervention? Ancient alien theorists say “yes”! And go on to say, that the name Cooper is the same as an original Mercury 7 program astronaut, and Kirk the same name as a fictional Starfleet captain from the future. And where was (will be?) Kirk born, you ask ?!?!? How about . . . Iowa!!!

Can’t you see the obvious, grounded, dare I say - logical - reasoning for Hawk fans positing the real reason behind it all, and not a simple, accurate, application of the rules?
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I recognize it's not a formal penalty. I just don't understand the point of the distinction between valid and invalid fair catch signal. If a valid fair catch signal is made and the ball is caught, the ref is supposed to blow the play dead and spot the ball where he caught it. If there is an invalid fair catch signal, the ref is supposed to do the exact same thing. So why have the distinction at all? Why not just broaden the definition of a valid fair catch signal to include the stuff that is now an invalid fair catch signal? Does the invalid fair catch determination give some protection to a defender who hits a player after the invalid signal?
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Invalid doesn’t give the runner the same protections as valid and gives More leeway to coverage team

Technically if you touch a guy who made a valid fair catch signal it should be 15
 

Someday I will look back at my life and be disgusted with myself about how much time I wasted educating people on a 2023 Invalid Fair Catch Signal referee video review play reversal from 2023.

Iowa fans simply won't let it die, and I have anointed myself to be the person to educate every last one of them, one at a time.

We all remember the play. Every time it is brought up on line, it is the same things:

1. He wasn't signaling fair catch (nobody is saying he was. he was waving his left arm, which is an INVALID FAIR CATCH signal)

2. Well, if it was a fair catch, why were the Minnesota players trying to tackle him (because players play until the whistle and it wasn't a fair catch, it was an invalid fair catch and it wasn't called until video review, at which time everything that came after Dejean fielding the ball is wiped away, including the time that had expired during the null run back).

3. That is a "phantom rule" that NEVER gets called. (It was called on the Gophers just a couple games earlier, and it was called in last year's college football playoff, to just name two examples. It does get called.)

4. That play is not reviewable (Just google "is invalid fair catch a reviewable play in college football." It most certainly is reviewable).

5. Well, they were reviewing for going out of bounds. You can't review for one thing and find something else. (see #4, when a play like that is reviewed, the entire play is reviewed).

6. They just reversed it because of gambling and point spreads. (It was reversed because it is a real rule and the waving of the left arm was obvious on review. If you truly believe the game is THAT compromised by gambling, what are you doing caring about it)?

7. He was just waving people away! (Which is an invalid fair catch signal. You literally just admitted he performed an invalid fair catch signal).

8. He was just pointing at the ball. (yes, with his right arm, while he was waving his left arm).

9. There was no way he was signaling for fair catch (but his actions were an invalid fair catch signal regardless what his intent was).

10. Iowa was totally screwed! (except both the B1G 10 and NCAA came out later to comment on the call to confirm it was the right call, and now it is clearly seen in reffing conversations as the correct call).

11. It's a dumb rule that shouldn't exist (Perhaps, that is subjective. But, if it didn't exist there is no doubt that returners would continually push the limits of fake fair catch signal vs real fair catch signal).

In a nutshell, I am amazed that two years later most Iowa (and even a few MN) fans literally don't know what was called, but they will argue it all day long as if they have the NCAA football rulebook memorized.
 

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