It’s seems like the SEC is stating that the downed punt was live even though we touched it with a knee down. They are claiming it has to be “possession”. And while i think I would agree that what happened in real time wasn’t possession…. If this was a fumbled ball, would that have been considered a recovery?
That picture floating around around of tulu touching the ball with a knee down is very misleading. First of all, just touching the ball doesn't make it down. If that were true it would've been down on the diving first touch that kept it out of the end zone because our guy's body was down when he touched it. Secondly, and nobody is talking about this, but it was touched with a knee down for half a second and after he took his hand off it, the ball was still moving. The punt was not down. For it to be legally downed, we would have either possessed it, or it would have had to have completely stopped moving with concession from the receiving team.
If the referee hadn't made an incorrect hand signal, and they hadn't had two number fours on the field, it would have been a legal return. This is why our guys need to learn from this and not let the bad call cloud things.