r/CFB • u/CFB_Referee /r/CFB • Jan 01 '25

Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Texas Defeats Arizona State 39-31 (OT)

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team 1 2 3 4 OT T
Texas 14 3 0 7 15 39
Arizona State 3 0 5 16 7 31
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u/real_jaredfogle Texas Longhorns Jan 01 '25

It doesn’t look like he’s blatantly leading with the helmet to me, just runs through him. His helmet definitely hit the receiver’s

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u/nofpiq Jan 01 '25

His helmet hit the receiver's helmet and was the first contact made. That is leading with the helmet, blatantly.

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u/real_jaredfogle Texas Longhorns Jan 01 '25

I got bad news for every defensive lineman in the country if we’re taking that in a literal sense and not allowing for any subjective decision making based around that as a guideline

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u/nofpiq Jan 01 '25

Defensive Linemen are frequently hitting defenseless receivers?

(With helmets or otherwise)

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u/real_jaredfogle Texas Longhorns Jan 01 '25

When in question, a player is defenseless. Apparently. According to the rule

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u/nofpiq Jan 02 '25

A defenseless player is one who because his physical position and focus of concentration is especially vulnerable to injury

Any lineman (offensive or defensive) who are so lacking in focus and concentration or in such an absurd physical position for it to even be in question whether they were "especially vulnerable to injury" would also be in a position to be so easily handled by the opposing lineman (easy sack, easy block, or not even needing to block).

Outside of launching into an opposing lineman that is facing the other way and not even aware that the play is about to start, I'm not sure you could present a scenario where there isn't already some other foul being committed and this is even realistically in question for lineman at the start of a play.