It’s not often that college football TV rules analysts offer sharp criticism of replay officials. That was not the case in Saturday’s Notre Dame – NC State game. Terry McAulay, a former NFL and college football official who now works for NBC, had no problem putting the ACC replay crew working the ND-NC State game on blast for failing to overturn a second quarter catch by Wolfpack receiver Terrell Anderson.
“The failure to revers to incomplete in ND/NC State is quite possibly the worst replay ruling I’ve seen this season," McAulay posted on his Twitter/X account.
He was referring to a replay that showed Anderson on the ground with the tip of the ball moving on the ground as Anderson attempted to complete the process of the catch. The play was ruled a catch in live action and replay failed to overturn it.
Moments later, Irish cornerback Christian Gray appeared to intercept Wolfpack quarterback CJ Bailey but the call on the field was an incomplete pass as Gray attempted to secure the ball as he went to the ground. The replay crew again reviewed the play but, while replays never showed the ball touching the ground, they also apparently did not show enough to prove that Gray did make the catch without ball hitting turf.
The maddening sequence was all part II of two consecutive weeks of a substandard ACC officiating crew impacting games at Notre Dame Stadium. All Irish head coach Marcus Freeman can do is send video clips and complaints to ACC headquarters each week.
“I think Sunday or Monday you can submit clips in if you want clarification or you disagree with a call, and they'll give you a review,” Freeman explained after Notre Dame’s win. “We do it every week. It's an every week thing. It's just trying to -- more than anything, get clarification on what you saw, why you saw it, how you're going to call it, and so that's all it is. They didn't have enough evidence to overturn a call or confirm a couple calls. Again, same as last week; they've got a job to do. I can be upset if I want, but I've got to worry about how is this team going to continuously get better.”
Halftime Message
Notre Dame and NC State were tied 7-7 when the replay reviews occurred. The Irish led 10-7 at halftime after Noah Burnette’s 48-yard field goal just cleared the cross bar on the final play of the first half. After scoring on touchdown on their first drive of the game, the Fighting Irish punted twice, turned the ball over on downs in the red zone and had an interception in the end zone on the second to last drive of the half. Penalties put the Irish behind the sticks too often for drives to prosper as well. Freeman’s halftime message to his team was clear.
“My message was stop beating Notre Dame,” Freeman remarked. “That was the message. You look at the touchdown drive in the first half, and bad technique, we give up an explosive play and they convert on two or three 3rd downs and that's the result. The offense, I already mentioned it, the penalties that put you behind the sticks result in punting the ball or turning wrong downs.”
The Irish finished with six penalties for 65 yards in the game. They also went 6 of 14 on 3rd down and 1 of 3 on 4th down.
“It's easy for me to say don't beat Notre Dame, but we have to continue to train our minds to focus in the right way and go out and execute,” Freeman continued. “They did, and it wasn't perfect in the second half. I think we came out the first time on offense and had to punt, went three-and-out. I didn't think we came out of the locker room perfectly, but you just keep battling, and you just -- you're going to look at me and say, really? But it's ‘just win this play’. That's really it. Your mindset has to just be, I don't care what happened last play, I don't care what happened -- I've got to win this play. I've been trained to win this play, and I've got to go out there and do it, and then you've got to move on to the next one, and that's going to hopefully help you get the results you want.”
The Tyler Buchner Fake
The only 4th down the Irish converted came from an unlikely source. Notre Dame’s offense was operating at a turtle’s pace for the first 30-plus minutes of the game. After going 3-and-out on the first drive of the second half, they led just 10-7 after getting the ball for the second time in the half. They faced 4th and 2 at their own 38, and it looked like Freeman was going to punt for the third time.
A quick shift of personnel put former scholarship turned walk-on back-up quarterback Tyler Buchner behind center. Buchner took a direct snap and ran through the middle of the Wolfpack line to gain three yards and kickstart a drive that would end with an 18-yard touchdown pass from CJ Carr to KK Smith.
“I felt conviction from practice that we could do that right there,” Freeman commented. “We'd practiced it for a while. Shout-out Coach (Marty) Biagi and the special teams, the staff, the players, the buy-in and the commitment. We're trying to always steal a possession, extend drives, and I thought we needed it at that moment because we went three-and-out the first drive of the second half, got a false start on that drive by Ashton (Craig), and I'm like, we need something, we need a plug and it was 4th and 2 and I'm like, go run it. Credit to those guys for the work they put in from Coach Biagi on down to the players to Buckner. That's what gave me conviction to say, let's do it on this moment.”
KK Smith’s Breakout
Wide receiver KK Smith came into Saturday’s game with two receptions for 18 yards this season and five catches for 56 yards in his career. He finished with three receptions for 59 yards and his first career touchdown.
“I don't know when Micah (Gilbert) went down with a hand injury, they told of told me Micah is out, he's got a hand injury,” Freeman recalled. “KK has been a guy that has been practicing at a high level. He's earning trust from CJ (Carr) and Kenny (Minchey) in practice, and he's committed to being a better player. Today he gets a little bit of that reward. I've always said you earn the trust of your teammates and coaches in practice way before you're doing it on the game field.”
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