In 1964, the phrase, “I know it when I see it,” became carved into the national lexicon.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart coined it describing what legally passes as “obscene,” while he attempted to define whether the rather obscure film The Lovers should be considered “hard-core pornography.”
“I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so,” Stewart wrote. “But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”
Stewart’s incredibly subjective and arbitrary (concurring) opinion should reek of familiarity to college football fans since it also appears to be the main criteria to determine the penalty of “targeting.”
I would quote the targeting rule in its entirety for reference, but it’s 900 words long and would take up half the space allotted to this column — which in and of itself should raise frustrations. Here’s the portion that the SEC highlights atop its rule page:
“Targeting” means that a player takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball.
Complicating matters, though, are slightly different definitions throughout the rule that require an “indicator” of targeting, such as leading with the crown of the helmet or a shoulder, elbow or fist. However, the rule notes that other indicators can exist beyond the listed ones. Of course, launching and forward thrusting — two actions that might have raised Potter Stewart’s eyebrows — are also specified indicators.
The punishment for a targeting infraction is severe. Besides a standard 15-yard penalty for a personal foul, a player who commits targeting is ejected from the game. Additionally, if the ejection occurs in the second half of a game, the player becomes ineligible for the first half of his team’s next contest.
The problem here is twofold: Defining a rule so vaguely becomes problematic at best, but to tie it to an almost-draconian punishment transforms it from irritating to infuriating.
Time and again, college football fans have seen targeting calls on the field with not much rhyme or reason as to whether they’re upheld on review. Take last week’s Oregon-Penn State game, for example. Late in the contest, Penn State linebacker Amare Campbell unquestionably hit Oregon wide receiver Jayden Limar in the head with enough force the spectators at Cowenstan National Stadium let out a collective “WHOA!”
Initially, a flag was thrown on the play and targeting was announced. After replay, however, officials picked up the flag and deemed no foul had occurred, much to the chagrin of yakked Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.
It sure looked like targeting to me, as well as the nearly the entire freaking internet.
Former NFL referee and football rules expert Terry McAuley weighed in the next morning with a long-winded explanation of why the play was NOT targeting. Again, as with the actual rule, I would quote McAuley’s diatribe verbatim, but his discussion of how the “crown” was redefined “to be a six-inch radius from the apex of the helmet” is exhausting.
For sake of avoiding argument and 1,000-word screeds, I’ll defer to McAuley that, according to byzantine rules and labored explanations, the officials of the Oregon/Penn State game were correct. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make.
If a rule requires as much subtlety, nuance and study to enforce as college football’s targeting rule evidently does, I am inclined to quote all-time movie villain Anton Chigurh: “If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”
If no one outside of the referee on a football field truly understands what targeting is — and I’m likely giving Mr. White Hat too much credit here — how do you even teach and coach players about it?
The NFL doesn’t bother trying. The most popular sports league in the country never specifically mentions “targeting” in its rulebook; rather, such acts fall under the umbrella of unnecessary roughness. The NFL handles these plays with a 15-yard penalty, an automatic first down and potential fines or suspensions on review FOLLOWING THE GAME and based upon the severity of each individual play. There are no “automatic” penalties such as ejections or suspensions, and especially none decided under the time duress of a review in the middle of a game.
The NFL’s management of these situations seems more sensible than the college football version: no hasty in-game decisions that can immediately affect games — like OU has witnessed both in its favor and to its detriment already this season — and no parsing of what exactly the “crown” of a helmet means.
Instead, college football has a hard-to-navigate rule brandished differently in each game according to the varying abilities and understandings of game officials, and it carries a dire automatic punishment that can affect MULTIPLE games. The situation leaves plays, coaches and fans watching for the whims of officials who only seem to know “targeting” when they see it.
It all gives me a vicious headache, one that is also brought on by picking through this week’s Hangover Highlights!
- The Sooners did exactly what they were supposed to do Saturday against Kent State, arguably the worst team at the FBS-level of football. The score may have been 44-0, but more important than the essentially pre-determined outcome was how OU backup quarterback Michael Hawkins fared in the stead of injured starter John Mateer.
- Hawkins’ stats were impressive enough: 14-of-24 passing for 162 yards and three touchdowns, nine carries for 33 yards and another score. Not to be Debbie Downer, though, but the eyeball-test told a different story: two of his passing touchdowns, for example, were on goofy broken plays that rarely occur against halfway-competent defenses.
- Kent State is terrible, and I’m not sure there’s much to glean from statistics accrued against the Golden Flashes. In reality, with the Red River Rivalry on tap next weekend, OU fans watched Saturday to see if Hawkins seemed comfortable as the OU signal caller, confident and in control of the game. I never really felt that. I think he looked better than last season, but he still seemed unsure of his reads in the passing game, slow to adjust and even inconsistent when running, which should be his strength.
- Look, Texas isn’t some juggernaut. But I’m not sure whether Hawkins is good enough at this point in his career to start for half of the 130-plus FBS-level college football teams. With that in mind, it feels like a Hawkins-led OU team would have limited pathways to win next week against Texas.
- Whether Mateer can return from recent hand surgery or not, OU looks to be without one of its top receiving threats following one of the most brutal injuries we’ve seen at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Keontez Lewis left the field with his spine stabilized after a brutal collision with the brick wall behind the north end zone. Early reports are more positive than one might have imagined, but the dangerous nature of the incident spurred some new takes on historical lines: “Mr. Castiglione, tear down that wall! Or at least put padding on it!”
- Speaking of painful disasters, we’ve reached the stage of Oklahoma State’s season where we only want to see the results of the carnage and not the unfolding of the actual nightmare. At this point, there’s little reason to become emotionally invested in this year’s squad with Mike Gundy already fired and some players — including the long-snapper — leaping into the transfer portal.
- Don’t blame the current student athletes or coaching staff members that remain. They were handed a sow’s ear with no needle to make a purse, and their 41-13 loss at Arizona won’t carry anyone’s valuables. Still, is there any respite upcoming for the beleaguered program?
- Right now, Oklahoma State is likely the worst team among those in a power conference. The Big 12 is not exactly a murderer’s row of programs, but the Cowboys will probably be double-digit underdogs in every remaining game. If OSU were to find a second win this season, next week at home against Houston might be the best chance. So, I guess there’s some reason to continue tuning in to see the orange and black?
- The preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll was led by Texas and Penn State. I really, really hope Freezing Cold Takes has taken notice of that fact.
- Both the Longhorns and Nittany Lions lost this week to a pair of teams that entered the weekend with a combined 1-7 record. The craziest thing is, neither Texas nor Penn State led for a second of either game!
- Texas simply didn’t look as good as the hometown 1-3 Florida Gators. Florida took the opening possession and drove it down the Longhorns’ throats for a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
- Texas quarterback Arch Manning continued his “meh” performance this season with a two-touchdown-but-two-interception outing. The most eyebrow-raising moment to me came in the fourth quarter when Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian called a quarterback draw on third-down-and-10 down two scores. Excuse me, but if you have the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite at quarterback and your back is against the wall, you trust that QB to make a play with his arm, right?
- To me, it says all I’ve already deciphered about Manning. I don’t think he’s terrible or in danger of being benched, but I do think he’s an average first-year starter with untapped potential. His ho-hum play has left Texas on the precipice of playoff elimination.
- If OU does start Hawkins next weekend against Texas, in a way it creates a win/win proposition for the Sooners and a lose/lose scenario for Texas. If OU wins with Hawkins, there will be uncountable laurels laid at the Sooners’ feet for defeating a rival despite playing a backup quarterback. If the Sooners lose, however, they were obviously hamstrung with said backup quarterback, and the question of “what would have happened if John Mateer started” would loom for the rest of the season and playoff picture.
- On the flip side, if Texas does end up facing Hawkins, the Longhorns are thrust into one of the biggest must-win scenarios of its program’s recent history. An embarrassing loss would eliminate Texas from the playoffs and place them on the shortlist for worst preseason No.1 team of all time (alongside the 2011 Oklahoma Sooners). A win, though, would still be surrounded with the stench of beating OU’s backup quarterback.
- The preseason No.2 team, Penn State, trumped Texas’ embarrassment by infinite degrees Saturday. Like Baxter pooping in the refrigerator and eating the entire wheel of cheese, the Nittany Lions lost 42-37 at UCLA when the hometown Bruins entered 0-4 as the only team at the FBS level never to have led a game for a single damn second this season.
- Sure, PSU was coming off a heartbreaking defeat and had to travel three time zones west for the game. Still, I thought that adversity might just mean they would win by 14 points or so. Instead, the 24-point favorites fell behind 27-7 in the first half and never recovered against interim head coach Tim Skipper’s motivated bunch.
- Finally, my man-crush on Diego Pavia was tested Saturday as the Vanderbilt quarterback turned over the ball three times in a 30-14 loss at Alabama. I felt Vanderbilt appeared to be the better team at several points in the game, but Pavia’s errors — two interceptions and one fumble — came at the worst possible times.
- In what is shaping up to be a wild season of upsets and no true powerhouses, Pavia’s big-stage stumble proved there is little more than a few turnovers separating all the playoff contenders.
- It all should make for a fun final two months of the season!
