KU, Iowa football teams ran remarkably similar (and odd) trick plays Saturday

Perhaps this is not as unusual as it seemed to me, but I had not seen a formation like this in a trick play.

But the Kansas and Iowa football teams set up in similar formations for trick plays in their games on Saturday.

The Jayhawks set up to punt in their game at West Virginia with only the center where the offensive line is usually located. The punter was in his normal position and there was one KU player out to the right. The other eight? They were at or beyond the hashmark on the left side.

The center snapped the ball to the left where a ball carrier had a cadre of blockers help him get the first down.

Take a look:

Now look at the Hawkeyes’ fourth-and-goal play from their game hours later at Minnesota:

There is no way that Iowa got that from KU, right? But they are similar.

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen told reporters after the game that he thought Kansas should have been penalized.

“I was under the impression that was an illegal snap.... if you pick it up and you pause and then throw it, that’s an illegal snap,” Holgorsen said. “That should have been called an illegal snap.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2018 at 11:43 AM.