Harsin offers explanation on confusing, costly Week 1 penalty

[aubiefifty 18,248]

Bryan Harsin offers official explanation on confusing, costly Week 1 penalty

Published: Sep. 08, 2022, 9:08 p.m.

5-6 minutes

---

Bryan Harsin was proud of the fact his team didn’t commit many penalties during its season-opening win against Mercer. The Tigers were flagged just three times for 20 yards last weekend, as they put together a relatively clean and disciplined debut at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

There was one call against Auburn that proved to be costly, though. The Tigers were flagged for running into the punter early in the fourth quarter, which extended a Bears drive that eventually ended in a made field goal.

Read more Auburn football: Auburn’s “one-one punch” at running back wants to build off strong opener

Nick Brahms opens up about retirement, new dual role as O-line coach, flight instructor

Bryan Harsin: Don’t necessarily expect 50/50 split at quarterback

It was a peculiar play that led to the penalty, and one that left many in the stadium and watching at home wondering about the call. Facing fourth-and-4 from its own 41-yard line, Mercer lined up to punt the ball away early in the fourth quarter with Auburn ahead 42-7. When the bears snapped the ball, it sailed through the hands of punter Trey Turk, who chased the ball down all the way back to his own 3-yard line.

Turk gathered the ball, turned around and quickly got the punt away as a pair of Auburn defenders -- Barton Lester and Dylan Brooks -- ran into him. The punt settled at the 43-yard line, but the 5-yard penalty against Auburn gifted Mercer the first down. The Bears went on to kick a 33-yard field goal to make it 42-10 midway through the quarter.

Harsin submitted the play to SEC officials for review and an explanation after the game. It’s not uncommon for coaches to submit questionable plays to the league for further explanation. According to Harsin, about half the plays he has submitted since arriving at Auburn have been ones the league has admitted were incorrectly called during games.

That wasn’t the case this time around, with Harsin stating Thursday during his weekly appearance on the “Tiger Talk” radio show that he got a detailed video explanation from the league in response to the play. The ruling, it turned out, was correct.

Here’s Harsin’s explanation of the penalty, in full:

“This one, what happened, when the ball went over his head, it stayed in the tackle box,” Harsin said. “So, he has the protection in that tackle box all the way back to the goal line. So, as long as he’s in that tackle box, he has protection — as long as he stays in the pocket and continues to make a punter-type move. So, what happened — and the official, this is a judgment call on his part — when the punter turned around, if he had made a move and tried to wiggle one way and get away from somebody and then try to punt it, we could smack him. Aight, we could hit him. But he turned right around, recognized that guys were coming after him, and he made — the first thing he did was try to punt the ball, and Barton Lester’s there.

“What Barton should’ve done — we talk about never leaving our feet — what he should’ve done is ran through the ball and blocked it with his hands, and then when you block it, you can hit the punter after you block it. But he left his feet, the punter kicks the ball past him, and then he hits the punter, so it ends up being a roughing-the-punter is what it is. We said the same thing; we showed the guys, and that’s another one of those things that comes up that you’re going, ‘alright, we got to continue to keep covering this and learn from it,’ but the bottom line is he was protected because he was still in the pocket. Had he made any sort of football move, then he’s just like any other player with the ball in his hands; we can tackle him, we can hit him, we can do whatever, and it would’ve been our ball right there.”

After receiving the explanation of the call from the league office, Harsin used the play as a teaching moment during a special teams meeting this week.

“So, moral of the story is, when he’s in the pocket right there, don’t leave your feet, run through the ball, block it with your hands, and if you’re not going to block it, avoid the punter and we still get the ball at the 40-yard line,” Harsin said. “They have no momentum whatsoever, and we have a chance to drive down there and score. So, you learn from that, but that’s what we got back from the officials. I think that was the right thing at the end of the day, and hard call for that official, but he chose to make that decision and say he’s a punter.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

I wasn’t a fan of the call, but if the tackle box is half a mile deep, it was the right call. I also wasn’t a fan of the holding call that negated a 50 yard Tank run.   Technically, it was holding (as is almost every block on every play) but he had him inside the shoulder pads and that almost never gets called.    The DL raised his arms like he was getting held and the ref (who wasn’t in position to see the OL hands anyway) threw the flag based mostly on the flop IMHO.   

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

I guess the main point of my mindless rambling is that I was glad to see our guys play very disciplined ball on week 1!