Last weekend in college football, BYU played against Washington, with the game coming down to a final play. Washington, down 7 points, scored a touchdown on the last play, and quarterback Jake Locker threw the ball up the in air after scoring the touchdown, and referees flagged him for a 15-yard excessive celebration penalty.
The penalty was enforced on the extra point, and the Cougars missed it. They lost the game, 28-27 because of that penalty. For more on the actual game, check out the full story.
But after practice today, Gators coach Urban Meyer made his case for the referees making the wrong call.
Did you see the BYU-Washington excessive celebration penalty?
"Awful. Horrible. I can't imagine that."
Do you try to tell your guys to avoid excessive celebration?
"We coach that hard. You also coach passion and enthusiasm for the game. The thing I teach our guys is don't you ever embarrass an opponent. Don't ever do that. We've seen that here before. …
"A guy dives on his teammate and celebrates - the minute they take that out of the game, I'm out of coaching. I'm going to go teach golf or something like that, because that's what this is all about.
"To see that call - I guess it's on the record - but I can't disagree more with that. Now, if he threw a ball in an opponent's face, or kinda went and talked to the guy, absolutely. Louis Murphy last year got a 15-yard penalty when he scored a touchdown in Ole Miss, he did a Gator chomp and jumped in his teammate's hand. That was absolutely ridiculous. If he threw his helmet in the stands or something like that, absolutely. That's nonsense.
If your players get a penalty for excessive celebration, do you reprimand them in any way besides the 15-yard penalty?
"Pull him out of the game. Yeah, they get reprimanded big time."
