Florida State’s bitter ending at Miami wasn’t just about a loss. It quickly turned into a rules-and-officiating fight that had head coach Mike Norvell on the phone with the ACC’s head of officials.
Norvell said Monday that he reached out to ACC supervisor of officials Gary Patterson after a holding penalty erased what would have been a game-tying Hail Mary touchdown in the Seminoles’ 43-35 double-overtime defeat Saturday night. Florida State fell to 3-4, and Norvell didn’t hide how he felt about the flag.
“The holding call was an absolute joke,” Norvell said.
The decisive sequence came in the second overtime after Miami had grabbed the lead. Florida State was pushed into fourth-and-21 after a sack and a penalty, then quarterback Ashton Daniels launched a 36-yard pass that Micahi Danzy caught in the end zone. That grab would have given the Seminoles a two-point try to tie.
Instead, officials flagged left tackle Xavier Chaplin for holding. The 10-yard penalty turned the situation into fourth-and-31 from the Miami 46, and safety Bryce Fitzgerald was then ruled to have intercepted Daniels’ next throw, which was aimed at Duce Robinson. Replay review upheld the call.
Norvell said he wanted an explanation on why simultaneous possession wasn’t discussed on that final play, though ESPN rules analyst Steve Shaw supported the ruling during the broadcast. But the holding call drew the heavier backlash, including a post from former referee Terry McAulay saying Chaplin did not commit a foul.
The Florida State coach said he respects officials, but he believes the standard wasn’t applied evenly.
“You go through the course of that game, the same thing happened a few plays earlier that was not called,” Norvell said.
He also made clear what he expects from the conference when the review comes back.
“A lot of judgment calls in all things, but that was bad,” Norvell said. “I haven’t gotten the final response from them, but if it’s anything less than what I said, it tells me everything I need to know.”
Norvell also pointed out after the game that the same officiating crew worked Florida State’s 20-13 loss at Stanford last season, a game that ended with Gavin Sawchuk being ruled short of the goal line on an untimed down.
The ACC has dealt with this kind of scrutiny before. Conferences do sometimes admit mistakes, and the Big 12 acknowledged a costly error in this past weekend’s BYU-Notre Dame game. But the ACC took a different route after Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher criticized officials following a 2016 loss to Clemson, fining the Seminoles $20,000 and publicly reprimanding Fisher.
While Florida State is left to stew during its bye week, Miami gets to enjoy a massive rise. The Hurricanes moved from No. 3 to No. 1 in Sunday’s AP poll, collecting 40 first-place votes after five of the top seven teams lost. It’s Miami’s first week at No. 1 since Dec. 8, 2002, and the first time any ACC team has held the top spot since Clemson in 2020.
Quarterback Darian Mensah threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns against Florida State, with two of those scores going to Malachi Toney. Miami, now 6-0 and 4-0 in the ACC, will put that new ranking on the line when it hosts Pittsburgh.
Florida State, meanwhile, is 1-3 in ACC play and should have Patterson’s review in hand before its next game.
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In double overtime, Fitzgerald found his defining play of the night, rising over a taller receiver to snare a Hail Mary and seal Miamis 43-35 win. The interception was the kind of finish that gets remembered around Coral Gables, but the physical toll behind it mattered too, because Fitzgerald had already been compromised long before the final snap and was still out there when the game was on the line. [Read more 🡒]
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Notre Dame Fans Have Every Right To Be Furious After BYU
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For Miami fans, the bigger takeaway is how quickly the wider playoff race can shift when the sport delivers a slate like this one. The SEC having no unbeaten teams through Week 7 for the first time since 2007 is the kind of development that can alter the path for everyone else, and the ripple effects from the officiating mistakes in BYU-Notre Dame only made the bracket conversation messier. [Read more 🡒]