Ohio State left Bloomington with a 19-15 win, but the afternoon quickly turned into a referendum on the officiating for plenty of fans watching the Big Ten showdown.
The Buckeyes’ victory Saturday snapped Indiana’s 22-game winning streak, yet the loudest reaction online centered on two calls that Ohio State supporters believed swung the game toward the Hoosiers. One came on a roughing-the-passer flag against Jermaine Mathews Jr. late in Indiana’s final drive. The other was a no-call on a deep ball to Jeremiah Smith that Buckeyes fans thought should have drawn pass interference.
That late flag was the one that really set off the backlash. Indiana was trailing 19-15 and moving the ball when officials penalized Mathews for contact with quarterback Josh Hoover, who had already been dealing with a right arm injury after landing on his elbow on an earlier scramble. The officials ruled no targeting, but the 15-yard penalty came at the two-minute mark and kept the drive alive.
Ben DiNucci, who played quarterback for Indiana coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison in 2019, wrote on X that it “has to be the softest roughing the passer call I’ve ever seen on Josh Hoover.”
Other Buckeyes fans were even more blunt. One X user posted, “Refs absolutely rigging this for Indiana.”
Indiana’s drive eventually reached fourth down, and Hoover found Nick Marsh by himself in the end zone with just over a minute left. Marsh could not get both feet down, and the score never changed.
The Smith play had already fueled the frustration earlier. Julian Sayin underthrew a wide-open Smith downfield, and no flag came on what Ohio State fans viewed as clear interference. A clip posted with the caption, “NO PASS INTERFERENCE ?”, picked up more than 234,000 views.
That complaint had been simmering before the game even kicked off. The Columbus Dispatch reported earlier this month that Smith had gone 10 games without drawing a pass interference flag, and Ryan Day said the junior’s size makes contact less obvious.
“When you’re that big and that strong, a foul doesn’t look the same,” Day said.
Indiana, meanwhile, had already heard the advice Nick Saban laid out Saturday morning: the best way to slow Smith was to affect the quarterback. Sayin completed 15 of 29 passes for 235 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions before leaving in the fourth quarter with a right arm injury.
The officiating frustration wasn’t one-sided, either. In the first half, a roughing call on Indiana’s Kellan Wyatt pushed Ohio State to the Indiana 11, and that drive ended with Bo Jackson’s fourth-down touchdown run before halftime. After Sayin went out, Indiana linebacker Isaiah Jones was flagged for a late hit on backup quarterback Luke Fahey.
By the final whistle, Ohio State had been called for seven penalties for 50 yards, while Indiana had four penalties for 42 yards.
Some Ohio State fans took that as proof the Buckeyes overcame everything in front of them. College football analyst Brandon Walker posted that Indiana “had the refs, home field, an all time bad showing by Sayin and then Sayin getting hurt and they still couldn’t win.”
Indiana fans weren’t happy with the game either. “Horrible game by the refs. Horrible game by Hoover,” one Hoosiers fan wrote.
Sayin, who entered the day No. 1 in the Big Ten quarterback rankings, returned to the sideline with his throwing arm in a sling. Both teams are now 6-1, and Indiana’s next game is Oct. 24 against Michigan at noon ET on FOX.
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