invalid fair catch signal

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The refs are the scapegoat for Iowas absolutely horrendous display of offense in this game. They still had the ball with over a minute left and only needed like 20 yards to get into field goal range.

After their first possession of the game, Gophers held them to just 57 yards and 3 turnovers.
 


Even with that thought, what the hell is Bryson doing there?
 


Pompous Elitist said:
No, no, no. Per his own words the wild arm waving was just “winding himself up for the turn”

Pathetic. Just own it.
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Agreed. When he said ‘I guess’ at the podium he was acknowledging guilt without having to own it.
 






Rewatching Football in 60 version. Gopher punt at 12:30 2nd. DeJean waves left arm in nearly exact same manner as “the punt”. Waves and points with right. Appears to have perfect balance. Ball rolls dead.

Gopher punt at 4:30. DeJean points at ball with both hands. No “swinging of arms”. Ball rolls dead.

Gopher punt at 0:00. DeJean points at ball with both hands. No “swinging of arms”. Ball rolls dead.

Gopher punt at 4:40 3rd. DeJean does last second legal fair catch signal a fraction of a second before ball gets there. No other arm movements of any kind before the catch. Appears to have perfect balance.

Gopher punt at 12:52 4th. DeJean shoves Nubin, does last second fair catch signal and draws interference penalty. No other arm movements. Appears to have perfect balance despite being “fouled”.

Gopher punt at 4:35 4th. DeJean does last second legal fair catch signal a fraction of a second before ball gets there. No other arm movements of any kind before the catch. Appears to have perfect balance.

Gopher punt at 1:40 4th. DeJean points at ball with right arm and waves left arm FIVE full circular cycles. You know the rest. Appears to have perfect balance.

Who do you believe? Liar #1 or Liar #2 or the evidence?
 
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RememberMurray said:
I have to say, I never knew Iowa fans, players and coaches were such whiners.

The rule is clear, the call was reviewed, and the correct call was made according to the rule.

Stop humiliating yourselves. Show some class and dignity. You're becoming pathetic.
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Becoming ??? Lol, forever and always.
 




EG#9 said:
Wait? what? Lets review. Iowa's first points come off a 3rd and long heave/great catch down the sideline that probably had a 5% completion probability. Then their TD "drive" came when a Gopher player grabbed a facemask on a sack on 3rd down that would have forced a punt, they get to the red zone thanks to a PI on Walley, then they are stuffed repeatedly at the goal line and the refs call Nubin for a personal foul for knocking the ball away after 3rd down. Maybe Iowa gets 7 there, maybe they don't...but they were definitely getting 7 after that call. Gophers also miss a FG in the first half.

Now the second half. Completely dominated by Minnesota. Iowa was in the single digits for yardage for much of the half. Then, they make a clearly illegal motion on a punt return with a minute left in the game on a play where a Gopher missed a very easy tackle at that spot to begin with. Still, it wasn't a penalty so Iowa has the ball on like their own 45 with timeouts in their pocket and only needing a fg to win. They go backwards.

Want a terrible way to lose a game? Dominate a game like Minnesota did last year rushing for 300 yards but missing a chip shot FG, fumbling at the goal line, and dropping an interception in the red zone before finally throwing your own interception on what should have been a game sealing drive like Minnesota did against Iowa last year.

Iowa would have been insanely lucky (again) against Minnesota (again) to win that game.
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It is a great win for the Gophers!
 

GophersInIowa said:
Maybe this was pointed out already but Watson clearly stops for a few seconds because of the motion.

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Also, why would 17 on Iowa run away from Watson if DeJean wasn't yelling get away? You would think blocking the guy in front of you on a real return would be more beneficial than running in the opposite direction.
 

Didn’t read hundreds of posts so sorry if already suggested:

the rule could be amended to say that if an invalid fair catch signal is made and the returner is deemed to then attempt to field and advance the ball (as if no signal of any kind was given), it is a 10 yard penalty against the return team.
 

GopherGold01 said:
View attachment 27838
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Smirking Kirk knows he and flapping-wings “Big Bird” DeJean brazenly cheated by advancing a dead ball; thinks he won’t get caught because game officials didn’t whistle ball dead. He can’t believe his good luck. Forgot that replay officials would look it over?
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
The Iowa returner pretty clearly seems to be a nutbag who thinks he's smarter than everyone else. He was either coached to make this move, or thought it up all by himself. The intent was clear to anyone who wants to objectively pay attention
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No doubt DeJean was coached to do exactly what he did: waive arms frantically, raising confusion over fair catch, but don’t raise arms over shoulder. This is an “invalid fair catch signal” and ball can’t advanced.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Also, why would 17 on Iowa run away from Watson if DeJean wasn't yelling get away? You would think blocking the guy in front of you on a real return would be more beneficial than running in the opposite direction.
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17 did that because that is what they are taught to do (every football team hs to pro) when a punt is “ offline” and the returner yells their get away word
Watson stopping isn’t evidence of what Dejean was doing with his arms, but the direction that he was running as Watson didn’t want to run past (to be in position to try and tackle him) or into DeJean drawing a flag.
The call was correct,

I’d like the rule to be changed though. Pointing is fine, valid fair catch is a waving motion above the shoulders and should be at least one back and forth motion ( thought DeJeans earlier fair catches were invalid). Arms out in a waving motion (hands must cross each other) should be only other type of motion to allow returner to not get hit. Which in this case would have let the TD stand. But he would have been flagged for invalid fair catches a couple of times earlier in game under this rule so his approach wouldn’t have been the same as it was Saturday on that last punt.
 

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Kirk Ferentz didn’t waste any time speaking his mind in his postgame news conference on Saturday.

The Iowa Hawkeyes’ head coach immediately talked about the controversial penalty for invalid fair catch signal that took away Cooper DeJean’s 54-yard punt return touchdown in the Gophers’ 12-10 win at Kinnick Stadium.

A player runs with the ball
Defensive back Cooper DeJean #3 of the Iowa Hawkeyes breaks a tackle during a called-back touchdown kick return during the second half by long snapper Brady Weeks #37 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Kinnick Stadium on October 21, 2023 in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
“If the Big Ten deems it necessary to fine me, hopefully they will find it in their hearts to send it to a good cause — like the (University of Iowa) children’s hospital,” Ferentz started.

Ferentz started off saying he thought the officials’ review on whether DeJean stepped out of bounds was fair use of the newer process. “But then somehow we went from there to a whole series of topics,” the longest-tenured Big Ten coach said. “It’s really hard to accept the explanation that we got.”

Big Ten referee Tim O’Dey said an invalid signal is “any waving motion by a receiving team member.” Replay shows DeJean did that with his left arm as the ball was bouncing near midfield and he was approaching it. Ferentz somehow questioned DeJean’s hand movement.

“If you look at the video you’ll see that,” O’Dey said to a pool reporter. “That waving motion of the left hand constitutes an invalid fair catch signal. So when the receiving team recovers the ball, by rule it becomes dead.


“That is a reviewable element of the game,” O’Dey continued. “We let the play run out and then when we went to review, review shows with indisputable evidence that there is a waving motion with the left hand. And that is when these rules are applied.”

That’s where Ferentz might have been scratching his head most.


“How we got from Point A to Point B, I have no idea,” he said. “I don’t know what the path was. I’ve heard the explanation, recording of it. It’s hard to make it make sense.”

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck stood on the sideline near midfield during that punt return and shared his up-closer view.

“My eyes immediately go back there,” Fleck said of DeJean. “I thought it was a fair catch signal. I’m not an official, right, but there was something. We’ve been called for that before, where we’ve made any type of movement prior to the catch. Then the ball is dead right there. But if it wasn’t, it was a heck of a play by the kid, a heck of a play.”

Ferentz added: “Credit to our opponent. Their effort was good. I thought our guys played hard. Just tough to find the right words to say to our team after something like that.”
 

GFBfan said:
17 did that because that is what they are taught to do (every football team hs to pro) when a punt is “ offline” and the returner yells their get away word
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I agree and that's my point. Not only was he waving his arm, he was clearly yelling at his teammates to get away and that was obvious by the reaction of them running away.

Yet Ferentz, DeJean, and Iowa fans want to keep pretending that he didn't do that.
 

Really all that matters is his left arm was not pointing at the ball, it wasn't shading the sun from his eyes and it wasn't a natural running movement. If it isn't any of these things, it's an invalid fair catch signal. It's as simple as that.
 


This is spectacular. Listen to the whole sequence here from the Iowa radio call:

Start at 4:12:25


Call during the return: "Cooper Dejean says get away from it"..."Cooper DeJean was waving for everybody to get away from the ball..."

During the review: "He did wave his arm, I thought he waved his arm for everybody to get away from the ball..."

After the overturn: "Where did he wave?"

Absolute gold.
 

CurveballJesus said:
This is spectacular. Listen to the whole sequence here from the Iowa radio call:

Start at 4:12:25


Call during the return: "Cooper Dejean says get away from it"..."Cooper DeJean was waving for everybody to get away from the ball..."

During the review: "He did wave his arm, I thought he waved his arm for everybody to get away from the ball..."

After the overturn: "Where did he wave?"

Absolute gold.
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Nice find. Someone should send it to KF so he knows that his own hometown radio crew saw the obvious waving he is trying to describe as "normal running motion."
 

CurveballJesus said:
This is spectacular. Listen to the whole sequence here from the Iowa radio call:

Start at 4:12:25


Call during the return: "Cooper Dejean says get away from it"..."Cooper DeJean was waving for everybody to get away from the ball..."

During the review: "He did wave his arm, I thought he waved his arm for everybody to get away from the ball..."

After the overturn: "Where did he wave?"

Absolute gold.
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After the review, the official says, "The returner waived his left hand which is an invalid fair catch signal." Maybe if he would have said "The returner waived his left hand, however it was not above his shoulder which is an invalid fair catch signal." a lot of the confusion could have been avoided. But after reading some of the Iowa fan's rants the last couple of days, I doubt it would have helped.
 


Watching the replay of Pat McAfee Show tonight and both he and Aaron Rodgers thought the invalid fair catch was a shit call. 🤷‍♂️
 


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