If the Gophers had kicked the XP, hadn't gotten the FG and Illinois had scored a TD to get the win, people would be saying "Why didn't they go for 2?" The call make sense.
Doesn't work that way. Part of talent is hanging on to the ball and not getting heavily penalized. Teams often get heavily penalized because the other team is more talented they're cutting corners to have a chance.
If the minor league was getting the best athletes out of high school people might show up to see the future NFL players. Most of the players in these other leagues aren't going to play in the NFL.
I just wanted to make sure what we had enough time to run all the plays we might need. It's great that we scored a TD, but I would have hated to settle for a FG just because there wasn't enough time left.
Even if he were trying to keep his balance, it wouldn't matter - the rules don't care why you're flapping your arms, only that you're flapping your arms. It's still holding, for example, even if you didn't mean to hold.
@GophersInIowa That's exactly why the rule is in place - even a moment's hesitation can give the returner an unfair advantage, and waving the arms does exactly that.