The Michigan Wolverines thought they’d taken an early lead over Florida with a touchdown pass to Khalid Hill, but were robbed by an incorrect penalty call.
In one of the marquee matchups of Week 1 of the college football season, the Michigan Wolverines faced off with the Florida Gators inside the vaunted AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. With a big stage, both teams wanted to get off to a hot start. After Florida used their opening drive to notch three points on a field goal, though, Jim Harbaugh’s team looked to take the lead.
Wilton Speight and the Wolverines offense led a long drive down the field, lasting well into double-digit plays. However, once they got into a goal-to-go situation, they started sputtering. When fourth down rolled around, though, they drew up a nice little play and even made it work when it broke down.
H-Back/tight end Khalid Hill came in motion to the right side and was stopped when the ball was snapped. With Speight rolling out, Hill released into the flats and was the intended target. However, a pressured Speight had to improvise and found Kekoa Crawford on a lob to the end zone for six points — or so Michigan thought.
Instead, the refs ruled that Hill was an ineligible receiver because he was “hidden”. As it turns out, though, that was the wrong call. He was in the backfield and completely legal to be down the field to potentially make a play.
The ineligible downfield called against Michigan was incorrect. 80 and 7 were both in the backfield at the snap. TD should have stood.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 2, 2017
In short, Michigan got hosed on the call, had to back up five yards and then settled for a field goal. Someone better not tell Harbaugh or he may commit lose it on a referee.
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The good news for the Wolverines, though, is that they got a stop on their next defensive stand. That then led to Speight throwing a bomb downfield to Tarik Black for a touchdown to ultimately take a 10-3 lead early in the first half.