Leading 24-13 with just over five minutes to play on Saturday, Notre Dame was forced to punt as Wisconsin tried to keep hope alive. On that punt that was fair caught at the Wisconsin 14 yard line, Brian Kelly was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty that moved the Badgers up to the 29.
Two days after the game and play, Kelly still wasn’t pleased with the officials call.
“Yeah, we had it pretty clear. When two guys take a run at somebody, I guess that’s not targeting somebody I guess. But if you try to stop somebody from going in the end zone, that’s targeting. We just don’t have it right yet. Your eyes should tell you what’s going on in the game, but sometimes we hide behind the rulebook. It just wasn’t officiated in the manner that I thought it should have been. So, they thought that because I went three feet out on the field, that I should get a flag for them not officiating it correctly.”
I’ve wanted to see the actual incident he refers to with Hamilton but am yet to be able to find the clip online. These are the kind of things that make players like to play for a certain coach though, when that coach goes to bat for a wrongdoing and then continues to do so.
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