Controversial replay review spoils onside kick for Kansas State against Oklahoma
A bizarre sequence of events spoiled a potential game-changing play for Kansas State during a 37-31 loss against Oklahoma on Saturday at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Here is what happened.
Kansas State coach Chris Klieman elected to try a surprise onside kick late in the third quarter with the Wildcats trailing 27-17. They were coming off a quick 75-yard touchdown drive and didn’t want to give the ball back to the Sooners’ electric offense, so they called for a trick play. It appeared to pay dividends when Ty Zentner recovered his own kick immediately after it traveled 10 yards.
The home crowd erupted. K-State players bounced around with joy. Oklahoma sent its defense onto the field.
“I thought it was the opportune time to make that call,” Klieman said. “And I thought we executed it really well.”
If there was any doubt the play might not hold up after review, those concerns were squashed when the officials examined replays and decided the play would stand ... Or so it seemed.
Turns out, they weren’t finished looking at the onside kick.
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley challenged a different part of the onside kick before play could resume and asked the officials to look and see if Zentner inadvertently kicked the ball twice.
It is rare for a team to challenge a play after it has already been reviewed, but it is allowed when the challenge pertains to a different part of the play than officials were originally examining. In this case, the Big 12 officiating crew in Manhattan was originally checking to see if the kick traveled the required 10 yards before Zentner touched it at midfield.
They apparently never looked to see if Zentner illegally kicked the ball twice.
“We felt absolutely certain,” Riley said. “I almost didn’t challenge it, because rarely do you see a review where they stay with the call, you challenge and then they flip it. But we were so sure. When I talked to the official after, they told me they did not review (that aspect of the play). All they were looking at was did it go 10 (yards) or not?”
The officials looked at the play for several minutes a second time and eventually decided that Zentner’s foot did twice make contact with he ball. Oklahoma took over possession.
“It was clearly the right call,” Riley said.
Big 12 football officiating coordinator Greg Burks explained the double review after the game.
“Once the announcement occurs, the review of the play is complete unless late-arriving information shows it is an obvious error,” Burks said in a statement. “We reviewed the initial aspect of where the ball was touched by the kicker in attempting to recover the kick.
“The second aspect of the kicker making two separate contacts of the ball was discovered after the announcement was made. By case book ruling we corrected the obvious error.”
Still, Klieman was understandably angry throughout the entire ordeal, at one point turning his hat around in disgust.
He didn’t have much to share about it afterward. He was still confused.
“I really don’t know,” Klieman said. “I’m frustrated, like a lot of K-Staters are out there. I didn’t get a great explanation. They reviewed it and then they didn’t see anything. Everything was clean, then they said they challenged it, another review. I didn’t know you could review a review. Evidently you can. I don’t know what that was, but they must have had some really good evidence that I didn’t see.”
The K-State crowd booed in unison when the play was overturned after a second review.
Riley credited the officiating crew for handling the replays in a professional matter.
K-State’s defense seemed to feed off the controversial ruling and Julius Brents came up with an interception against Spencer Rattler a few plays later.
But that won’t stop K-State fans from wondering what happened to the onside kick it appeared the Wildcats originally recovered.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Controversial replay review spoils onside kick for Kansas State against Oklahoma."