A controversial roughing-the-passer flag on Michigan freshman Tariq Boney turned an early Indiana drive into 15 free yards Saturday, and Fox analyst Joel Klatt wasted no time blasting the call on air.
Early in the second quarter, Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover fired an incomplete pass toward Nick Marsh. Boney made contact with Hoover on the play, and officials flagged the Michigan defender for roughing the passer. The penalty moved Indiana from its own 26-yard line to the 41 and gave the Hoosiers a fresh set of downs.
“Oh, come on, guys. What are we doing?” Klatt said during Fox’s Big Noon Saturday broadcast.
His broadcast partner, Gus Johnson, echoed the reaction.
“Come on now. My goodness,” Johnson said.
Klatt then spelled out why he thought the call was too much.
“I understand protecting the quarterback. But when you graze with a thumb across the forehead, like, what are we doing?” he said.
Indiana made the most of the extra life in the series. Kicker Nico Radicic later drilled a 34-yard field goal to put the Hoosiers in front 6-0.
The flag added another layer to a roughing-the-passer debate that already had Klatt talking. Just one week earlier, he was critical of another such call involving Hoover in Indiana’s game against Ohio State.
In that one, officials flagged Buckeyes cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. during Indiana’s final drive with the Hoosiers down 19-15. The officials overturned a targeting call but kept the 15-yard roughing penalty.
Indiana still lost and saw its 22-game winning streak end.
Klatt has also taken aim at officiating elsewhere in college football this week. On The Joel Klatt Show, he said, “The officiating has been hard. The officials directly impacted results, and that’s not what they are supposed to be doing.”
He also referenced the Notre Dame-BYU finish, where the Big 12 later acknowledged a clock error that cost Notre Dame a final play.
Before Saturday’s matchup, Klatt had praised Michigan’s defense, calling the Wolverines the nation’s top team in yards allowed per play and saying he expected them to make Hoover work for everything. At the time of the penalty, Michigan had already held Indiana to 87 total yards and a 4-of-12 passing line with 5:45 left in the second quarter.
That made the roughing call even more costly in the middle of a tight defensive game.
Indiana entered at 6-1, while Michigan came in at 4-2 after a 21-18 win over Penn State.
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