Sure, it may just be a spring game, but Big Ten officials aren’t letting players slide a little bit on the celebrations. After Penn State’s Blue team put the first points on the board in the annual spring game, we saw our first penalty for excessive celebration from an official not allowing for any fun whatsoever.
[autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag], the presumed starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions in 2023, had a bumpy first offensive series in the Blue-White Game, but he was much smoother on his second series. After making his progressions, Allar found an open [autotag]Omari Evans[/autotag] down the middle of the field for a nice gain, and Evans worked his way into the endzone for the first score of the Blue-White Game. And that led Evans, who is among those competing for a significant role in the offense this fall, to spike the football with a little flair.
Unfortunately, that led to Evans being flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty for the excessive celebration by an official working the game. Hey, it’s spring for the refs trying to get some work in as well, and this official wasn’t about to let this moment go without some discipline.
But on top of the penalty assessed to his team, Evans paid the ultimate price by having to do a series of up-downs on the sideline as punishment from the coaching staff.
On one hand, it would be nice if the spring game could allow for some fun moments and the officials hold on to the flag for stuff like this. It may be a spring game being worked as a more traditional game approach, but it’s still not an actual game. On the other hand, for a team working to take the next step toward being a legitimate Big Ten and College Football Playoff contender, perhaps it is good to keep the focus on doing everything possible now to be better prepared for big things in the fall.
But after giving it some though, let’s have some fun in the spring game and keep that flag in the pocket next time, ref.
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