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Big Ten Says Replay Failed Before Halftime of Nebraska-Ohio State Football Game

The conference has admitted to an error in officiating during the Huskers' game at No. 4 Ohio State.

Kaleb Henry

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end JT Tuimoloau (44) celebrates a tackle of Nebraska Cornhuskers running back Emmett Johnson (21) during the second half of the NCAA football game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. Ohio State won 21-17.
Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end JT Tuimoloau (44) celebrates a tackle of Nebraska Cornhuskers running back Emmett Johnson (21) during the second half of the NCAA football game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. Ohio State won 21-17. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The Big Ten Conference has admitted to an error in officiating during Nebraska football's game at No. 4 Ohio State.

Just before halftime, NU seemed to pick up a first down. The spot, however, had the Huskers short, causing confusion and allowing the clock to run. The league sent out a statement Monday about the error.

"During Nebraska's final drive of the first half, on second down with two yards to gain on the Ohio State 39-yard line, the ball was incorrectly spotted after a run by Cornhuskers RB (Emmett) Johnson. The ball carrier crossed the 37-yard line and a first down should have been awarded to Nebraska. Replay should have stopped the game to review the spot since it involved the line-to-gain."

Luckily for Nebraska, John Hohl drilled the 54-yard field goal. Unfortunately, that was just one of several obvious errors in a game that saw the Huskers fall by three points on the road.

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule on Monday was asked about his conversations with the league about officiating. He gave a lenghty response.

"I’ll first say this. I commend the league for putting out a statement. The worst thing I can do is get up here when I’m trying to get our team to look forward to UCLA and be talking about the calls that went against us in a loss. I think that’s very forward thinking of Commissioner (Tony) Petitti and of Bill Corollo, who’s the head of officiating, and I think it’s what should be done. We all just want transparency, in everything. I come here and you guys ask me ‘What happened on this play?’ or ‘What happened on that play?’ and I do my best to be transparent and answer them. That was a game, you guys hear us talk about situational football, we’re trying to master situational football, the last drive of the half and the last drive of the game. When you have one timeout and you think it’s a spot, it just makes it hard to coach. That was difficult and they addressed it. That’s really all I want.

"I will say this, I think one of the hardest jobs in the world right now is to be an official. I grew up in an era, when I played college football, I stood next to Coach (Joe) Paterno. The officials went out there, they had their whistles, they threw their flags. There weren’t 52 camera angles because games weren’t on national TV. They threw the flag and you lived with it. Coach Paterno wouldn’t yell at the officials, that’s just how football was. Now we’re in a world where we have instant replay. The first instant replay was to overturn the egregious stuff. Now, we can fix things. Last week, there were three seconds on the clock, and all of a sudden, there were six seconds against Indiana. Now, as an official, if I’m calling the game, I’m calling the game on controversial calls with ‘what happens if it does get overturned?’ If it’s close, there’s a fumble and they think the guy is down, they’re instructed to call it a fumble so the play continues, and replay can overturn it. Replay, if it’s close, will go with the call that stood. Even if that’s not what the official thought. The amount of things that must be in those guys’ heads, God bless them, and there’s 100,000 people and they’re running backwards trying to say, is it DPI, is it OPI? It used to be that the officials had to go over and talk to each other. Now, they have a microphone and they’re talking to each other during the game and they’re confirming things and I feel for them.

"I’m never going to get up here and complain about judgement calls. That’s not my thing. I’ve talked about replay. Last year, we had three plays, where the next day they said the replay was wrong. That’s hard for me. It used to be, replay was in your own building. You’d see the replay official before the game and he was going to go out and make the call. Now, replay goes off to an essential site somewhere. It’s probably the best system in the world. I advocate for the players. I advocate for the coaches. I’m also going to advocate for the eight guys out there calling the game. I’m going to give them my opinion at times. I’m never going to cross the line.

"I do want to say this because I want my daughters and every person in Norfolk and Duquesne and everywhere in the state to hear it. Both times I’ve gotten a flag this year, the next day they said it never should have been a flag. So I don’t disrespect officials. I stay on the field. I coach the way I’ve coached for the last 12 years. I’m aggressive but defensive. No one on my sideline talks to the officials. The officials will always tell you discipline. I appreciate the statement, but I do want to say it must be very hard to be out there making those calls, and there was a really controversial OPI in the Ohio State-Oregon game, and they called it pass interference. So what ends up happening, over the next couple weeks, there’s all these points of emphasis and they’re talking about OPI and all of a sudden we show up and we get two OPIs on the last drive of the half and the last drive of the game. You guys have watched us, I don’t know how many OPIs we’ve had this year. These points of emphasis that hit you each week – something happens and we change the kickoff return mechanics.

"As a coach, I can’t change what an 18-year-old does or a 22-year-old does on three days notice. We went through camp, we went through all the officiating training, officials come to practice, we’re told to do things a certain way, then as the season goes on and things happen, officials have to adjust. We have to adjust. All of a sudden you get into a game like this and all this stuff happens. I appreciate the transparency. I do want to make sure everyone understands where I stand, though.

"I advocate for the officials. I think we should let them call the game and it shouldn’t change as much as it does based on this and that. We should just let them call the games and live with the result, like we live with the players’ results. I appreciate that. Some tough things went against us. We’ve had replay go against us. We’ve had my penalties go against us. I don’t want any more apologies on Sunday. It can’t happen against UCLA. Can’t happen against Iowa. These things can’t happen moving forward, so I’m very forward-thinking.

"I appreciate Bill (Corollo), I appreciate Tony (Petitti), I appreciate Troy (Dannen), I appreciate everybody. But it can’t keep happening to us. It needs to be fair. That’s not about the guys making judgement calls. They’ve got a tough, tough, tough job. Tell us what the rules are and we’ll go from there. That’s my take. I hope it’s okay that I say that. We’re not going to sit here and whine about whether it was a hold or not. During the game, I’ll yell. When they false started, I yelled ‘hey, that’s a false start,’ but then the play is over and you play the next play. We have to play better. Before we worry about the officials, we have to worry about ourselves."

Get more on Rhule's Monday media availability here.

All of that said, enjoy a video montage below of more missed calls.

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Kaleb Henry
KALEB HENRY

Kaleb Henry is an award-winning sports reporter, covering collegiate athletics since 2014 via radio, podcasting, and digital journalism. His experience with Big Ten Conference teams goes back more than a decade, including time covering programs such as the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oregon Ducks, and USC Trojans. He has contributed to Sports Illustrated since 2021. Kaleb has won multiple awards for his sports coverage from the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association. Prior to working in sports journalism, Kaleb was a Division I athlete on the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Track and Field team where he discussed NCAA legislation as SIUE's representative to the Ohio Valley Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. 

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