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We all saw the drama between Bielema and Beamer during the Citrus Bowl, but there were tons of examples where teams exploited loopholes to gain an advantage. Is it more sportsmanship or gamesmanship? Is it teams who find themselves in a situation to take advantage of a loophole to win the game or is it cheating? We will discuss a few of the examples here to see where you may land.
Before we go into the Citrus Bowl, let’s start off with earlier in the season. Dan Lanning and his Oregon Ducks used a “too many men on the field” defensive penalty to melt precious seconds off the clock. Ultimately, Will Howard used up those last few seconds to slide down causing the Buckeyes to miss a chance at kicking the game winning field goal. Was this clever on Lanning’s part or do you classify this as unethical or cheating? I would say it’s fair game because the coach found this loophole, but some may disagree. Once, this happened, the NCAA did in fact close this loophole, but Warren Sharp called it “genius”.
Secondly, let’s look into the Notre Dame vs Georgia game in the playoffs. Georgia’s coach, Kirby Smart, said he was told it was not legal to substitute all 11 players on the field. However, the Irish did in fact do so and got away with it. Again, I ask, is this clever or cheating? Until there is uniformed officiating throughout all conferences in the NCAA, we will continue to see things like this happen.
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Bowl games have always included trick plays, exploitation, and loopholes, but we have never seen what we saw in the Citrus Bowl between Beamer and Bielema. Bielema continued to sub defensive players late causing Beamer to use timeouts or take a delay of game penalty. Also, Bielema apparently took great offense to this kickoff return from the Gamecocks, which by the way Shane says was perfectly legal.
After many attempts of these coaches to gain an advantage, things ultimately came to a head after a player was injured on Illinois. I am all for teams doing whatever they can to take advantage and win a game. However, I cannot say that I am for the childishness and immaturity that pursued thereafter. If you find yourself getting outcoached or outsmarted, take a moment and re-evaluate your tactics and strategies. An inability to do that will only result in tempers and negative reaction. Once, Beamer saw that Illinois was going to be late sending in defensive subs, I would immediately have stopped subbing. I would have forced them to keep their players on the field. That’s the calling card of numerous college offenses, so I don’t understand how we didn’t think of that in the Citrus Bowl.
With all of that said, I am all for exploiting loopholes, gaining an advantage and trying to win the game. But ultimately, children are watching and you have to keep composure. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to my show Southern Fried Sports. Live on Monday, Thursday and Saturday at 9pm/EST. Y’all be blessed, not stressed and just be kind to one another!!
