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Nov. 11—PULLMAN — Jake Dickert still isn’t sure about the rules for pass interference during fake punts.
Washington State’s head coach shared as much on Monday, saying that after Utah State benefited from a pass-interference call on a fake punt late in Saturday’s second quarter, he contacted officials from the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 about the ruling and whether it should have stood.
“No one has any idea of the rule, if it’s pass interference or not,” Dickert said.
As Dickert understood it and teaches it to his players, pass interference doesn’t apply on fake punts because when the receiving team is blocking the kicking team’s outside players — in this case receivers — it would allow the passer to lob a pass to a receiver who’s being blocked and get an easy pass interference call.
“That’s the spirit of the rule,” Dickert said. “So whether you’re throwing it wide to the gunners and simulating punts, or you’re throwing vertical balls to the inside, to me, the spirit of the rule — there’s no pass interference on punt plays. Those kids can’t determine that. That’s why you have that rule, so you can’t just see somebody blocking, throw it at them and say you have a PI.”
That’s actually not what happened during Saturday’s game. WSU safety Tanner Moku recognized the fake punt, drifted back in coverage and leapt to defend the pass from reaching USU receiver Jack Hestera, and that’ when an official threw the flag for pass interference. It didn’t cost the Cougs — nickelback Kapena Gushiken intercepted a pass near the end zone — but it did rob them of a chance to field a punt and get better field position.
After the call, officials told Dickert that the ball was thrown too low to simulate a punt, which is why they threw the flag. Dickert responded that Utah State’s previous punts were also of the low line-drive…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wsu-notebook-jake-dickert-hoping-030100233.html
Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
Publish date : 2024-11-12 03:01:00
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