Official Official Statements after the game

The U-M Media Relations department circulated this after the game.  I’m not publishing it because I have some beef with the calls or think they had a major impact on the game.  I haven’t seen the replay of the lateral yet but assume they made the correct call, and it looked like Michigan got a huge break on the fumbled punt that was negated by the bad interference call.  I’m not sure who’s asking the questions–

Following are the quotes from Todd Geerlings, the Referee from today’s Michigan-Purdue Game.

What was the interpretation on the fourth down review with the forward lateral? What was it that the replay official saw?

TODD GEERLINGS: “The replay official saw that the ball, when it left his hand to the point where it touched the receiver’s hand, was clearly forward from the 13 to the 12 yard line. That’s why we had an illegal forward pass from the spot of that pass.”

Who called for the review?

GEERLINGS: “The booth called for the review and I announced that on the field prior to. The coaches on the field were trying to but Purdue did not have a challenge left so they couldn’t have. They were trying to but just as I got the buzz on the pager, I just turned to Purdue and said ‘We got it’ but I think people thought they had challenged it. They were trying to, but they did not.”

If they had been able to challenge it…

GEERLINGS: “They could not have challenged it. They had a challenge earlier in the game, which they used, and they did not have a challenge remaining, so they could not have challenged it.”

If they had the challenge, once they had challenged it, everything would be open for review, correct? Or would have it changed what would have been reviewed?

GEERLINGS: “It would have not changed anything if they challenged it or the booth buzzed it. We looked at the same things and what we found was that the ball was clearly forward from the time it left the passer’s hand to touching the hand of the receiver.”

What did you see on the play?

GEERLINGS: “My role is rolling with the quarterback. I was behind by maybe five or six yards. I knew it was very close but I could not tell if it was forward or backward because I was five yards upfield from that. The head linesman was right there and said ‘Hey, it’s very, very close.’ But he was coming up to get progress and was slightly behind and didn’t have a perfect look at it. He did not have enough information on the field to rule it forward.”

With the punt return muff call earlier (by Hemingway)…

GEERLINGS: “It’s a judgment call, deemed to have interfered with.”

Related:  Rodriguez postgame in press conference, including the Danny Hope confrontation.