Let me start by saying that last night was an amazing win, first hostile environment for Haskins and this young team and they could have easily given up down 12 with 8 minutes to go but they fought hard and came up big when it mattered the most. But after watching the game last night, I really think that the NCAA needs to adopt two huge rule changes that would definitely have a positive effect on the game.
1. There needs to be two different kinds of targeting, incidental head contact that's still a 15 yard penalty but no ejection and the blatant targeting that warrants an ejection. Too many times players are being thrown out of games for plays that are not avoidable. Pryor's hit last night, I'm not sure what else they expected him to do and the booth who reviewed it should be ashamed of themselves. He tried to dodge the receiver and hit him in the head by accident and got thrown out, that's bad and definitely could have been a game changer if it was say, Fuller or Wade.
2. Coaches should be allowed two challenges during the games, one for plays and another for penalties. Too many times penalties have a big impact on games and more times than not, its a bad flag and there's nothing anyone can do about it but issue an apology after the game is over. Let's say that Young's facemask penalty wasn't corrected last night, when he clearly grabbed McSorley's shoulder pad but the refs decided to throw a flag because of the crowd's uproar, that would have put Penn State deep into our territory in prime scoring position and could have decided the outcome. I know the call was corrected on the field, but that doesn't always happen. Coaches should be allowed to challenge one penalty per game so that refs have little to no impact on the outcome of games whatsoever.
Am I the only one who thinks these would be great rule changes and well overdue? What an amazing win that was last night and I'm still riding high! Proud of this young team and looking forward to watching them grow during the rest of the season. Luckily a few bad calls didn't ruin the night for these kids.
