Big Ten officiating coordinator says yep, it was a fair catch in Iowa-Minnesota

Cooper DeJean's fair catch was ruled correctly, Bill Carollo says.

Oct 21, 2023; Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes defensive back Cooper DeJean (3) reacts during the second quarter against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Kinnick Stadium. / Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

It was a fair catch, Iowa fans.

The infamous Cooper DeJean play from Minnesota's 12-10 victory over Iowa last October was ruled correctly, Big Ten coordinator of football officials Bill Carollo said at the conference' media days in Indianapolis this week. With less than two minutes remaining in the game, DeJean appeared to have saved Iowa with a miraculous punt return touchdown. But with all of Kinnick Stadium in celebration, the lead official announced that DeJean made an "invalid fair catch signal," resulting in the ball being dead as soon as he touched it.

The issue wasn't that DeJean pointed at the ball with his right arm — a signal to tell his teammates to stay away — it was that he was waving his left arm at the same time.

"Once any waving happens, the ball is going to be dead," Carollo said, via The Gazette's John Steppe. "You can point, but you can’t point one arm and then wave the other way to get away." Carollo added that it was a "standard rule that's reviewable" and a "properly" overturned call.

As Minnesota’s punt bounces, Cooper DeJean monitors to his teammates to stay clear.

The refs deem it a fair catch signal.

DeJean’s second game-winning punt return TD of the season is called back.

A game and season-changing call. pic.twitter.com/1dW7xdqplm

— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) October 21, 2023

What the game officials did wrong, according to Carollo, was that they didn't blow the play dead as soon as DeJean made the invalid fair catch signal.

“We let it go through, and of course, the results were a touchdown,” Carollo said. "So then that looks like, ‘Who’s making this call? And why are you making that call two minutes after the touchdown?’ What we didn’t do properly was the back judge, the person covering the return man, when he caught that ball, the whistle should have been blown dead, and the play was over. Had the back judge done that, we wouldn’t have the conversation."

The call was made by a replay official upstairs at Kinnick. Starting in 2024, those calls will be made at the Big Ten's new replay center in Chicago. Functionally, though, the process will be the same.

The end result of DeJean's touchdown getting overturned was the first Gophers victory in Iowa City since 1999 and the end of an eight-game Hawkeye win streak in the Floyd of Rosedale rivalry series. The two teams will meet again in Minneapolis in September. DeJean, who was taken by the Eagles in the second round of this year's NFL draft, won't be part of that matchup.