A lengthy replay review irritated the ESPN announcing crew during Friday night’s broadcast of a Tulsa-Oklahoma State college football game.
With 20 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma State quarterback Zane Flores threw a pass to wide receiver Sam Jackson V along the right sideline.
It was an incredible effort by Jackson and was ruled a catch. However, the ESPN announcing crew of play-by-play man Anish Shroff, color commentator Andre Ware, and rules analyst Matt Austin all noted after a quick look at replay on the broadcast that Jackson didn’t appear to secure the ball as he hit the ground.
“They’re going to overturn that to incomplete pass,” Austin said one minute after the play happened.
A few minutes later, officials were still reviewing the play, and the ESPN crew called out how long it was taking.
“They continue to look at this replay, and the review continues,” Shroff said.
Ware responded, “At this point, aren’t you just looking for a reason to overturn it, taking this long?”
Shroff then asked Austin, “If you haven’t found anything at this point, the call is upheld, isn’t it?”
“Well, that’s exactly right,” Austin said. “We’ve gone almost five minutes. You hope to limit replays to two minutes. If you don’t know by now, you gotta let the call be, let it be upheld.”
And finally, seconds later, the call was officially upheld.
If the review isn’t definitive after two minutes of watching replays, the call should just be upheld, and we should move along with the game.
As for the game, Tulsa held on for a 19-12 upset victory over the Cowboys in Stillwater.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.