It was never stated why they were reviewing the play, the announcers at the time said they must be reviewing to see if he had stepped out of bounds, but was before they announced what they were reviewing the play for like they do today. If a very vague rule, he waved his arms, but more to tell others to away more than anything else, and he did not put his arms above his head, signaling a fair catch. It could be easily fixed by just passing a rule that states the returner may not signal in anyway and then advance the ball. It sure looked like to me that the Minnesota players did let up, thinking he was fair catching, and then were caught off guard when he started running again.
PJ Fleck gives his take on the Cooper DeJean fair catch incident back in 2023
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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Minnesota # 37 was right there and tried tackling him immediately.
True he was and missed, but the group behind him had slowed down, thinking the play was over. You see this happen all the time in a game when a punt bounces, the kicking team starts to slow down and then the receiver picks it up and start running. Its a fine line, for the people covering the punt, if they hit or interfere with the returning they are going to get a penalty, and get chewed out by the coaches, so they are trying to figure out running down the field, did he signal to fair catch the ball or not.
It's an easy rule change, that would stop this from happening, you wave your arms in anyway, you cannot advance the ball. Not sure why the EIU fan base would oppose that just because they thought they had benefitted this one time. Sooner or later, it will be the other team that does it too you. Just change the rule.
Not true. It was stated afterwards that the reason for the review was to see if the runner stepped out of bounds. During the review they then decided to also look at whether a fair catch was signaled. The decision saying Cooper signaled a fair catch was based off one person’s interpretation of a single overhead camera shot (none of the other camera angles showed a fair catch signal).
FIFY...
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Sorry. You don't know what you're selling and I'm not buying it. This game was the proverbial nail in the coffin. The fact that Iowa went on to win its next 4 games to win the West, and would have been 11-1 going into the B1G championship, would have made this a much more difficult action to take, regardless of how pathetic the offense looked in getting there.
Maybe we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe on that play, that 35' tall Gopher special teams guy, based on his superior height advantage, saw a couple of getaway from the ball hand motions made by Cooper and interpreted those as a fair catch signal, so he stopped running and slowed up. And maybe he was yelling to his teammates that it was a fair catch, so don't try to tackle him lest we get a 15 yard roughing penalty, but his teammates just wouldn't listen to him so the rest of the Gopher special teamers kept going at full speed trying to tackle Cooper. Yes, I bet that's what happened. Therefore, a good call by the cubicle official. Case closed.
Sorry, the excuse of "Iowa didn't deserve to win" doesn't make me feel better about a blatant overturn of a game outcome by one of the worst replay officiating jobs in the history of replay. Honestly, there should have been an investigation as to whether the replay guy bet on the game or knows someone who did because it was that bad of a call.
That’s true, but much like the topic of this thread, all that matters is the W. Sometimes the better program does not win and sometimes it’s due to calls that go for or against a team. Life goes on, except with iowa fans where the excuses and what ifisms are never ending.
Hah! Speaking of W's.... The better program is the one with the 9-1 head to head record over the last 10 years. Your fan's program celebrated another 3-6 conference record last year. Tied for their best record in 8 years! Impressive!
The better program most years since 2015 sure. Nebraska is clearly the better program historically. iowa is to nebraska what isu is to iowa. Apples to apples.
Your program is a Big10 doormat. The University of Chicago used to be dynamite. Nobody cares what happened last century. Deal with it.
The refs tortured Floyd for one year by sending him to Goofland. Thankfully he is back where he belongs.
If that play stands and we win that game does Brian still get sh.itcanned?
Butterfly Effect
Butterfly Effect
Yes. It was a lot more than one game. Even if we did win via the return, the offense was and had been pathetic.
You don't understand the concept of the "butterfly effect".
If you really think DeJean's return being called back was some subtle nudge that put into motion a whole chain of events that otherwise wouldn't have happened (Brian's firing) you're delusional. He was already on the way out.
I think he was gone no matter what as well. IIRC he was fired the week after a win... All it took was Barta to retire and then his boss Kirk really had no say on how it was going to when the new boss Beth put her foot down.
My MN fan family still laugh at how they were gifted that game. They do love it though.
Also let's not forget that had Iowa just punted every time in the second half with the lead and not tried to even run offensive plays we wouldn't have been in that situation either, lol. Turning over the ball deep in Iowa territory gave Minnesota their points. There wasn't a chance in hell that ball was moving forward after the penalty drop. But it did further expose the offensive disaster and it hastened the removal of Biff. That truly was a worse before it gets better moment.
You are--literally--the only person who thinks/says that. Aside from PJ Fleck, of course.
I am just as confused about this subject as I have ever been ove the past three years, but i will say that this story has the potential to rival the JFK assassination in terms of a story that will not die (at least in Iowa, it does; maybe not nationwide)
If you watch the video of the game, not just the little clip posted, it appears that Fleck was of two minds about the situation. Initially, he was deflated by Cooper's run for the TD, but he did not at any time appear to object to its validity and complain to an official. When the call went his way, he flipped and suddenly had a different opinion and presented it as though that had been what he thought all along. I have no use for Fleck (except as an annual punching bag, sort of like Nebraska).
This exactly along with anyone at the game or watching on tv ever crossed anyone's mind that it was a fair catch. The bs part of it was they looked to see if he stepped out of bounds, and then came up with what they said was an infraction. I don't think that's allowed.
Think of the consequences of that BS call. It cost Cooper a punt return for touchdown. It cost Iowa an 11 win season. It cost Kirk when it comes to all time wins. We lost Floyd.
Yeah but we didn’t deserve to win that game. All we had to do was move the ball like 20 yds (fact check?) to get into FG range and couldn’t do that.
Agree for part of that, but our FG kicker has not been automatic, close but not.
It’s a moronic thought. So Minnesota deserved to win the game?
One team was going to win the game after playing ugly . It should have been the team that deserved to win after making a big special teams play, because they would have had more points
In my opinion, yes, Minnesota deserved that win more than Iowa. We lost turnover battle and time of possession, which is pretty damning for an Iowa team most games. And when we still had a shot at the win after what was the correct call (despite my reluctance in admitting that), we went backwards and then turned the ball over. Don’t blame the refs, that loss was entirely on Kirk and Brian.
I appreciate you explaining position. But we scored a touchdown with one minute left. So assuming our defense stopped the Gopher offense, we win. There was never any reasonable explanation to how a replay official in NY or wherever, could make that call. It's really one of the more ridiculous overturns I have ever seen, regardless of game. And there were many non Iowa fans who agreed.
We win games in ugly fashion. There are so many games where on paper we should not have won. Its what we do