ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was an odd moment on Saturday when Michigan football cornerback Will Johnson appeared to draw a crucial pass interference penalty against Rutgers, which would have extended the Scarlet Knight drive.
Though Johnson had made contact with the receiver, it was minimal compared to some of the other plays that didn’t draw a flag. Rutgers would have had a first down on a set where the Wolverines managed to get the Scarlet Knights to fourth down. Mike Sainristil intercepted the fourth-down pass and brought it back to the house for a pick-six.
After the game, Jim Harbaugh spoke about the pivotal no-call, laughing about how ridiculous it almost was given the ticky-tack nature, especially compared to other no-calls in the same game.
“The one where Will kind of held him up and didn’t take him and throw him on the ground and just held him?” Harbaugh said. “You know, I thought that was terrific sportsmanship! Very mature play, very disciplined play and just a very, very good-sport play. And somehow they throw a flag. I mean, that’s that boggles the mind after I’d already seen two where Roman Wilson got cupped around and thrown into our sideline. So yeah, that was the right decision to wave it off. Good thing that cooler heads prevailed and were able to show a different look. You can’t see everything, I understand that as officials but I thought the crew did a great job of intervening and making the right call.”
As far as Johnson is concerned, he wants to simply stay away from being potentially penalized for a borderline call. He says it wasn’t particularly egregious, what he was doing, but he doesn’t want to take any chances in the future.
“I mean, I definitely didn’t think it was too much but I understand with the push and all that, so I mean, I’m gonna just chill out on it for the weeks to come,” Johnson said. “I didn’t think it was too much, it’s football. Yeah, I felt like I was holding him up. And yeah, I don’t want to talk too much about it. I want to try to stay away from it and do what’s best for the team from now on.”
Fans will get another chance to see Johnson in action on Saturday when Michigan football travels to Nebraska for a 3:30 p.m. EDT kickoff.