5. USC gets clocked at Stanford. Down 34-28 with the fourth-quarter clock ticking down at Stanford, USC's Allen Bradford rumbled ahead to the Cardinal 3-yard line with 1:15 to play. Officials spotted the ball, measured the spot, marked the spot as a first-and-goal for the Trojans, reviewed the spot and upheld the spot. At that point, the clock should begin running, either a) Allowing USC to take another 25-30 seconds off before its next snap, or b) Forcing Stanford to use one of its final two timeouts. Instead, the clock never budges from 1:15 as the Trojans line up to punch in the go-ahead touchdown:
USC scored, but Stanford kept its timeout, and also picked up a couple extra seconds when the clock failed to start on time on the subsequent kick return by Chris Owusu, both of which proved crucial on the Cardinal's ensuing drive for the game-winning field goal on the final snap of the game. The Pac-10 responded to USC coach Lane Kiffin's complaint by speaking to Stanford and hiring a former NFL officiating chief as a "special advisor."
4. Maryland gets an extra yard. Down 38-17 with its first ACC Atlantic title at stake, N.C. State rallied for a pair of late scores at Maryland on Nov. 27 to cut the Terps' lead to a single touchdown with 1:22 to play. After failing to recover the obligatory onside kick, the Wolfpack used their remaining timeouts to force Maryland into a fourth-and-1 at the N.C. State 32-yard line with 53 seconds remaining, at which point the Pack held fast on what appeared to everyone to be one of the defensive stands of the year – to everyone, that is, except to the officials spotting the ball as chronicled by Sports by Brooks:
The phantom first down allowed the Terps to kneel out the clock on their eighth win and cost the Wolfpack a trip to the ACC Championship Game, though it couldn't save Ralph Friedgen's job in the end.
3. K-State's taboo salute. Kansas State trails Syracuse, 36-28, with a minute and a half to play in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 30. Wildcat senior Adrian Hilburn hauls in a pass in the right flat, breaks a tackle and sprints to the end zone for a dramatic, 30-yard touchdown that pulls KSU within a two-point conversion at 36-34. To cap it, he decides to give a harmless salute, to the glee of one miserable Big Ten official:
The 15-yard unsportsmanlike flag pushed the Wildcats' two-point attempt to tie from the Syracuse 3-yard line to the 18, from whence it predictably failed. 'Cuse recovered the onside kick, sealing its first bowl win in more than a decade.
2. Courtney Osbourne's "questionable" blitz. Nebraska was pretty much angry in all directions during its Nov. 20 loss at Texas A&M: Officials, reporters, grabby Aggie linemen, even Nebraska's own quarterback came in for a dose of 'Husker rage. But of all the penalties that provoked their ire – and there were a lot of them – none was as infuriating as the roughing-the-passer call against safety Courtney Osbourne for a good, clean hit on A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill on a third-and-11 blitz with six minutes to play in a tie game:
The 15-yard penalty bailed the Aggies out of a certain punting situation, instead giving them new life in range of a go-ahead field goal attempt – which came a little under three minutes later, sealing a 9-6 A&M win and the first of three Nebraska losses in its last four games.
1a. Home cookin' giveth to BYU... It was bad enough that Mountain West officials ruled BYU running back J.J. DiLuigi down by contact before this third-quarter fumble against San Diego State on Oct. 9, and then somehow upheld that call on replay despite clear video evidence to the contrary:
• Dec. 8: Best Upsets
• Dec. 11: Most Overachieving Teams
• Dec. 13: Most Overachieving Players
• Dec. 15: Most Underachieving Players
• Dec. 16: Sharpest Turning Points
• Dec. 20: Most Underrated Players
• Dec. 21: Best Breakthrough Players
• Dec. 24: Best Plays
• Dec. 28: Most Valuable/Costly plays
• Jan. 5: Best Comebacks
But it was truly embarrassing for the conference when one of the three members of the replay team in charge of reviewing the call turned out to be an employee of the BYU athletic department. The MWC swiftly suspended the entire crew and enacted a new rule barring employees and alumni from any officiating duties at their schools, but not before things got really ugly. Weeks later, San Diego State alumni were still demanding answers and pushing for a possible forfeit.
1b. ... and taketh away. The Aztecs didn't get the forfeit, but they did get the catharsis of watching BYU complain over a phantom fumble of its own, when cornerback Brandon Bradley lost his grip on a potentially game-clinching interception in the fourth quarter of the Cougars' regular-season finale at Utah. This time, Bradley was clearly down with possession of the ball after making the pick, but again, the MWC crew wasn't convinced:
The Utes took advantage of their second chance by finishing off the go-ahead touchdown drive with a little over four minutes to play, and hung on for a 17-16 win by blocking BYU's game-winning field attempt on the final snap.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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