No. 2 Ohio State was losing by a touchdown on the road to No. 8 Wisconsin in the second quarter. A referee close to OSU’s sideline signaled for the clock to start running after a play was called dead. Buckeye head coach Urban Meyer accidentally walked into the ref as he was giving a signal.
A ref smacked Urban Meyer in the head, then flagged him for it
It was the right call, too.
Meyer was then hit with a 15-yard penalty for physical interference. “Physical interference with an official is a foul charged to the team for unsportsmanlike conduct,” per the NCAA rulebook.
Technically, no one on the sideline is supposed to stand in the white box during a play, even though coaches get away with it all the time. Stepping in the white box usually just gets you a warning, if anything, unless you actually get in an official’s way.
But a flag gets thrown when you make physical contact with a referee, which is an automatic 15-yard penalty. In this case, that was Meyer getting smacked in the face.
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