There’s not much consolation for Wake Forest and its fan base after the ACC confirmed a missed penalty on 16th-ranked Georgia Tech.
In the Yellow Jackets 30-29 overtime win on Saturday afternoon at Allegacy Stadium, the missed offside call took place with 1:48 left and quarterback Robby Ashford and the Demon Deacons trying to run out the clock with a 23-20 lead.
On the play, Daiquan White jumped into the neutral zone and center Devin Kylany snaped the ball. If the penalty is called, then the Demon Deacons would have gotten a first down and likely would have run out the clock and picked up the win in regulation.
Ashford, who had thought a flag was thrown, threw the ball deep to wide receiver Sterling Berkhalter on what was supposed to be a free play. Instead, the pass fell incomplete, and it was fourth down and five and the Demon Deacons were forced to punt.
The Yellow Jackets, who had no timeouts left, then worked the ball down the field to get an Aiden Birr field goal to tie the game with two seconds left, sending the game into overtime.
An ACC spokesperson confirmed Sunday morning that that a Georgia Tech defender should have been penalized for being offside at the snap.
At his news conference, Coach Jake Dickert was asked about the play.
“I’m not putting that on Robby,” Dickert said. “There’s no way he can see the flag.”
Dickert said Ashford has been trained to throw the ball deep like that when it’s a free play. Only, the penalty flag was never thrown.
“Robby’s doing what he’s trained to do and that’s take a shot because he doesn’t know if it’s offsides or not,” Dickert said.
According to the rule book and Rule 7-1-5, when a defensive player is beyond the neutral zone when the ball is snapped, it’s a penalty.
The Demon Deacons had a 20-3 lead with 5:43 left in the third quarter but couldn’t hold that lead. They also lost a second-half lead in a loss to NC State on Sept. 11.
When reached Sunday for comment, Athletics Director John Currie didn’t want to talk about the specific play. He did, however, appreciate the swift response from the conference about the mistake by the officials.
Currie said in a statement that the ACC is the first power conference to offer live audio and video to television viewers from inside the replay center in Charlotte.
“I appreciate the proactive steps Commissioner Jim Phillips and supervisor of officials have taken to establishing the ACC as a leader in transparency for officiating,” Currie said. “The speed of the game and complexity of the rules means that officiating mistakes are inevitable, just as they are for coaches, players and AD’s for that matter.
“I believe we should continue to identify opportunities to utilize technology to ensure outcome impacting technical violations can be corrected, without disrupting the flow of the game. For example, we utilize VAR to determine offsides in soccer and in football down and distance, inbounds/out-of-bounds plays, etc. Whether it’s giving coaches one challenge per game or having a hot button in the last two minutes of a contest, there are solutions we should explore.”
The Demon Deacons will try to rebound from the overtime loss with a 1 p.m. game on Saturday at Virginia Tech. The Hokies defeated the Wolfpack in Raleigh on Saturday night.
jdell@wsjournal.com
336-727-4081
@johndellWSJ
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