Void reasonable catch wipes away an Iowa TD in loss

Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Citizen WriterOct 21, 2023, 09:43 PM ET

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• College football press reporter.
• Signed up with ESPN.com in 2008.
• Graduate of Northwestern University.Officials wiped out Cooper DeJean’s punt-return touchdown that offered Iowa a late fourth-quarter lead Saturday against Minnesota because DeJean gave an invalid fair catch signal by waving his left arm.DeJean fielded a bouncing Minnesota punt at the Iowa 46-yard line and raced 54 lawns to the end zone to put Iowa ahead 16-12 with 1:32 left. However after evaluating the play, authorities ruled that the play was dead. Iowa’s Deacon Hill threw an interception three plays later, and Minnesota dominated 12-10, defeating the Hawkeyes for the very first time since 2014.”The receiver makes a pointing gesture with his right hand and he makes several wave gestures with his left hand,”referee Tim O’Dey told a swimming pool reporter.”That waving movement of the left hand makes up an invalid fair-catch signal, so then when the receiving team recuperates the ball, by guideline, it becomes dead. That is a reviewable component of the game. We let the play gone out and then we went to evaluate. Evaluation reveals with unassailable video evidence that there is a waving motion with the left hand.”That’s when these guidelines are applied.”O’Dey stated that while returners are enabled to point towards the ball,”any waving motion” renders the play

  dead. O’Dey talked to the on-site replay official and collaborative reply, utilized by power conferences and headquartered in Pittsburgh, to make the ruling.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said the judgment was”difficult,”and noted that fair-catch procedures are examined with authorities before every game.”It was fascinating, the final analysis of that play,

  ” Ferentz

  stated.”The most peculiar part to me was, at least the preliminary replay, was to find if he remains in or out of bounds, which

  clearly he didn’t. … Somehow we went from there to an entire different series of subjects, and it’s actually hard to accept the description that we got.”Maybe I slept through the conference when they covered there, but I’m still uncertain who makes the final decision.” Ferentz added that he believes on-field officials must have the final judgment on such plays.”I value the replay on that,”he stated, including that it was a”

  strange “game.”That’s fine, do their research and make sure they are appropriate on that.

  “A similar reverse took place in 2015, when Wisconsin’s Alex Erickson was determined to have actually made a void reasonable catch signal before returning a punt for a touchdown versus Northwestern.