Georgia coach Kirby Smart was cautious when discussing the Texas fans who threw water bottles and trash onto the field after a Longhorns interception was initially canceled by a pass-interference penalty, which was later overturned.
“I won’t comment because I want to respect the wishes of the SEC office,” Smart said when asked about the situation during the Bulldogs’ 30-15 win on Saturday night.
“But I will say now we have a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, you’ve got a chance to get your call reversed.”
The Southeastern Conference released a statement early Sunday that confirmed the officials made the right decision by not calling a penalty on the play with 3:12 left in the third quarter. There was contact between cornerback Jahdae Barron and receiver Arian Smith before the interception.
“The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is allowed to ensure the correct penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he made a mistake and that a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference,” the statement explained.
However, the league said they would review the disruption caused by the debris in relation to SEC sportsmanship policies.
“While the original assessment of the penalty was not executed correctly, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time,” the league stated.
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian was upset with the officials for the call that seemed to take away Barron’s 36-yard interception return to the Georgia 9-yard line. He went to the far corner of the field to signal to the student section to calm down and stop throwing things.
“I understand the frustration,” Sarkisian said. “We all were frustrated in the moment. But, you know … all of Longhorn Nation, I know we can be better than that.”
As the trash was cleared from the field, officials were discussing the play and decided to pick up the penalty flag.
Smart then approached official Matt Loeffler, who informed the coach that the initial penalty had been called on the wrong player.
“It took him a long time to realize that,” Smart said when asked who the correct player was. “I guess the offensive guy. You know, 11 (Smith) and 7 (Barron), two distinct numbers. I don’t know in all of my coaching career if I’ve ever seen that happen that way.”
Sarkisian mentioned that the officials did not explain to him why the call was changed. Just two plays after the call was overturned, Quinn Ewers threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jaydon Blue, bringing the Longhorns to within 23-15 after being down 23-0 at halftime.
“We were able to get that stopped and get that kind of taken care of and then regroup,” Sarkisian said about the disruption. “Then they overturned that call, gave us an opportunity to get a short field and punch one in and close it to a one-score game.”
