In the first quarter of the TaxSlayer Bowl, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops and Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson got into a shouting match after a couple of Wildcat defensive injuries on consecutive plays:
Kentucky and Georgia Tech head coaches are yelling right at each other about GT’s blocking
The Jackets’ style of run blocking is often unpopular among defensive coaches, and two defenders were hurt.
ESPN
At issue: whether these were cut blocks or chop blocks. There’s a big difference. The former is a legal block below the waist. An illegal chop block is a low block against a defender who’s already being blocked up high by somebody else. This is an endless debate when it comes to run-option offenses like Johnson’s.
Here’s the play that injured Alvonte Bell:
ESPN
It does appear he’s hit low and in the side by No. 50, Andrew Marshall, while tangled up with another blocker. This probably could’ve been flagged, but from this angle, it’s conceivable Marshall was going after somebody else.
The other one, on which Courtney Miggins was hurt, just looks like a scrum:
ESPN
A few plays later, Stoops was unhappy again about a late helmet-to-helmet hit by a GT defender.
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