Iowa State player penalized for doing a somersault in loss to Texas
It sometimes feels like fun is frowned upon in college football.
On Thursday night in Ames, it looked like Iowa State’s defense forced a Texas three-and-out to start the game when Longhorns QB Shane Buechele was sacked. But instead of the punt team coming out, Texas was given an automatic first down because of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Iowa State defensive end JaQuan Bailey.
Here’s what resulted in the 15-yard penalty:
Yeah, that’s not much. The replay cut away a bit early so we don’t know if there was anything unsavory that happened when Bailey was face down on the field. If it was just a somersault that irked the official, then that is a really weak call.
Oh, and it proved costly for the Cyclones, too. Instead of punting, the Longhorns drove right down the field and scored nine plays later on an 11-yard Chris Warren touchdown run. Warren’s touchdown run was one of only three touchdowns in the game. Texas’ defense limited ISU to just 256 yards while forcing three turnovers — all Jacob Park interceptions — in a 17-7 win.
We’ve seen quite a few iffy unsportsmanlike conduct calls in the sport so far this season. This one ended up resulting in a touchdown, but at least it did not directly take a score off the board. That’s happened twice already.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
