Here’s an attempt to describe what happened in the last play of ASU’s 32-30 win over Wisconsin Saturday night.
The indisputable:
- With 15 seconds left, Badgers sophomore quarterback Joel Stave kneeled down at the middle of the field on ASU’s 15-yard line and set the ball down.- ASU sophomore defensive end Jaxon Hood tried to pick up the ball but hesitated. A second later, Hood, redshirt freshman safety Laiu Moeakiola and senior linebacker Anthony Jones jumped at the ball again. Jones fell on top of the ball in front of the umpire with 12 seconds left.
- Stave stepped closer to see what was going on. At the 10-second mark, Stave turned back to the head official and signaled he was down. The head official confirmed it and Stave turned back to the action.
- As the clock ran down, both teams were still standing in place.
- Jones finally got up and handed the ball back to the umpire with five seconds left. The umpire set the ball down with three second left.
- With two seconds left, the Wisconsin offensive line finally recognized the clock was running down and hurried back to the line of scrimmage. By the time the Badgers were finally set to spike the ball, the play clock expired.
The Aftermath
So how is this all supposed to be sorted out?This all ensued because of some confusion about whether there was a fumble on the play. When Stave rolled to the middle, he bumped into redshirt junior offensive lineman Rob Havenstein before taking the knee.
In real time, it was unclear whether he was actually down. I didn’t believe Stave’s knee hit the ground from my vantage point on the field from ASU’s endzone. Zoomed shots from replays and screenshots later show Stave’s knee did make contact.
According to NCAA rules, the officials should have stopped the clock or called a delay of game penalty on ASU because Jones prevented the umpire from taking the ball and resetting it. Had the referees spot the ball in an orderly fashion, Wisconsin would have enough time to spike the ball and send in junior kicker Kyle French to attempt the game-winning field goal.
However, it could also be argued that there was poor clock management from Wisconsin’s end. What Stave also could have done was hand the ball to the officials as soon as he kneeled to ensure control of the clock. They could have kicked the field goal when the previous play stopped at 18 seconds, but Wisconsin seemed to have no trust in French, who was 1-of-2 on field goals coming into the ASU game and had missed an extra point last week for Wisconsin.
It was the classic case of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.
It’s tough to manage the end of a game when a lot of things are happening all at once. It didn’t look like any of the players, coaches or the media watching the field knew exactly what was going on and time just took its course. It took awhile after time expired for me to realize what happened and that ASU won.
Here are some accounts from players and coaches after the game:
- “It is a shame that it went down that way. If there (are) 18 seconds left, we teach the kids to spike it and of course he slipped but that is what we practice. We were worried we would have a kickoff our way.” – Wisconsin coach Gary Anderson
- “There’s only a couple of officials that were right on the ball, the rest of them kind of came in to see what was going on. I know Wisconsin was griping, but it is what it is.” – ASU redshirt senior defensive back Osahon Irabor
- “I guess the quarterback tried to take a knee and I guess he put the ball down. It looked like a fumble, I don’t know. We hopped on the ball because the way we practice is anything on the ground, we go get it. We saw a ball on the ground so we went in and jumped on it. I guess time ran out and we won.” – ASU senior safety Alden Darby
- “He ran over to stop the ball. We never tackled him. He put the ball on the ground. You can’t do that. I mean, it’s a fumble.” – ASU coach Todd Graham
Reach the reporter at jnacion@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Josh_Nacion
