On the very first play of the game Missouri’s redshirt freshman quarterback Maty Mauk threw a 41 yard pass to L’Damian Washington, who was promptly slammed out of bounds by a Florida linebacker. Slammed so hard that the play drew a yellow flag, a 15 yard penalty and the defender was called for targeting and, by rule, ‘disqualified’ from the game. The ruling on the field was confirmed after review and he was indeed ejected from the game.
On the very next play Mauk finessed one into the corner of the end zone to Bud Sasser and Mizzou (+2.5) had scored seven points with only 22 seconds gone off the game clock. The Tigers continued to dominate throughout the afternoon holding the Gators to only 151 yards total offence while Mizzou racked up 500. Final score 36-17.
At almost the same moment, at the beginning of the South Carolina-Tennessee game, almost the identical foul occurred with the same result. Gamecock safety Kadetrix Marcus was thrown out of the game for a helmet to helmet hit on Alton Howard after a 12-yard pass completion. One again the play was reviewed and once again the ruling on the field was upheld and the offending player was escorted to the locker room.
The refs made their point early and effectively. The players remaining on the field must have gotten the point because no further targeting fouls were called in either game. No more players were ejected from the games
Friday night and Saturday afternoon was prime time for NCAA underdogs beginning with the shocking upset of previously unbeaten Louisville, with Heisman hopeful Teddy Bridgewater by upstart UCF which, stands for the University of Central Florida and is located outside of Orlando. The Cardinals went into the contest as 11.5 point favorites but it was obvious from the first quarter on that the handicappers had missed the mark on this one.
A little known fact is that UCF is the second largest university in the USA and boasts an enrollment of over 58,000 students. Expect to hear more from UCF in the future. They beat Louisville on a touchdown pass from quarterback Blake Bortles to Jeff Godfrey with 23 seconds left on the clock to win the game by a final score of 38-35. What a game!
The underdogs continued to rule on Saturday afternoon as Tennessee (+7.5) toppled South Carolina and Vanderbilt (8.5) beat the #15 ranked Bulldogs of Georgia.
