By By David Cloninger

Copyright postandcourier

They didn’t have any massive effect on the game — and USC certainly knows what calls can have massive effects, after the LSU game last year still causes muttering and clenched fists when mentioned — but coaches always want and need clarification on just what is allowed and what isn’t allowed. Rules on hitting quarterbacks are almost always questioned, and those two penalties appeared to be softer than a mother’s lullaby.

“Bryan Thomas had already initiated the act of going to tackle the quarterback as the quarterback jumped in the air to throw the ball,” Beamer said. “So, other than Bryan Thomas being able to, while in mid-air, turn his body to avoid landing on the quarterback, I don’t know how to coach him.”

If a solution is found to that, it could be called the “Magic Bryan Theory.” But until then …

“I think it’s tough to teach Bryan what to do in mid-air when he had left his feet by the time the quarterback left his feet,” Beamer said. “His body weight landed on the quarterback and we know that, if your body weight lands on him, you’re putting it in the officials’ hands.”

“(An official) had told me it was a body-weight rule thing. But in my head, I’m thinking, ‘When it comes to body weight, you got to like slam them into the ground or whatever.’ But I didn’t do that,” Thomas said. “I tackled him and I guess too much of my body weight landed on him.”

Stewart? Beamer said the SEC felt both calls were legitimate and warranted. He could only respond with, “If we’re going to call that a late hit or whatever it was, I can send in plenty of worse things being done to our guys.”

Stewart was ejected later on for shoving a lineman, two hands to the chest, right in front of the referee. There was no excuse for it, especially after he was penalized last year for excessive action.