Facing a three-point deficit with 2:39 left to play at West Virginia on Saturday, and with just one timeout remaining, Baylor hit the football lottery. The Bears recovered an onside kick and got excited, because their offense was about to get the ball back with a chance to leave Morgantown with a win.
Baylor had an onside kick recovery overturned on review for an illegal block vs. WVU
The Bears won’t like it, but this makes sense all the way through.
That turned out to be too good to be true. Baylor’s Aiavion Edwards (No. 20 in white) was flagged for an illegal block, with officials ruling he’d made contact with a Mountaineer before he was allowed. The recovery was nullified, and Baylor had to kick again. WVU recovered it on the follow-up, and the Mountaineers were able to drain most of the remaining clock. Baylor got the ball back in the final minute, but WVU held on to win, 24-21.
The call looks to be correct. Baylor wasn’t allowed to recover the ball until it reached the BU 45-yard line. Here’s Edwards clearly blocking a Mountaineer before the ball’s traveled 10 yards:
Edwards also made contact with a West Virginia player on his way up the field, before he locked onto his block. Either could be called a block by an official, but the image above is definitely a block. And the NCAA’s football rulebook is pretty clear that you can’t do this when the kick hasn’t yet traveled 10 yards. (The eventual Baylor recoverer is No. 28, Orion Stewart, who’s clearly not yet eligible to recover it while Edwards is blocking.) The rule:
No Team A player may block an opponent until Team A is eligible to touch a free-kicked ball.
That means the kicking team. And because Baylor isn’t yet eligible to touch the ball, there’s no doubt here. That’s illegal blocking, and the Big 12 officiating crew correctly called it.
Onside kick blocking is explicitly listed among the sport’s reviewable fouls, so there was nothing wrong with taking a deeper look at this play. The Big 12 did, and it got it right.
Does Baylor have a legitimate beef? Here’s one concern:
On every onside kick, the receiving team should just run right at the kicking team to draw a penalty. What a hose job.
— OurDailyBears (@OurDailyBears) December 4, 2016
A couple of WVU players certainly did run forward beyond the 45-yard line. Some contact was inevitable. But Edwards still engaged in a clear block of a WVU player before he was allowed, and the rulebook is the rulebook.
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