Monday, November 2, 1998
Zebras agree:
Flag thrown
too late
Hawaii will send in tapes
By Paul Arnett
showing there was no
illegal receiver
Star-BulletinAfter further review, the officials shouldn't have thrown the flag.
At least that was the consensus of the crew yesterday morning as they waited in the El Paso Airport for their respective flights home.
Not since former Hawaii head coach Bob Wagner was reprimanded by Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson in 1994 for saying, "I've always thought the officials knew who was supposed to win and called the game like it," has a whistle received so much local publicity.
Hawaii had a successful fake punt called back in the third quarter because the umpire (John Bradley) noticed belatedly that Bo Espinoza was illegally down field.
The rule states that a player not eligible to receive a pass can only go down field on a pass play if he immediately charges and contacts an opponent at a point not more than 1 yard beyond the neutral zone and does not continue the contact more than 3 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Espinoza was lined up at left guard and may have gone down field 2 yards without making contact. The problem came when the official threw his flag about 20 seconds after the play was over.
According to one official, who asked not to be identified, the general feeling was the flag came too late. At that point, it was better to let the play stand.
UH head coach Fred vonAppen said he would send in the team tape showing no one went beyond the line of scrimmage, except for legal receivers Anthony Smith and Wesley Morris.
On the fake punt, Morris caught the pass from upback Daniel Ho-Ching for an apparent 37-yard gain. But after viewing his card to see who could and could not be down field, Bradley ruled Espinoza left early.
Espinoza denied that allegation and the coaches backed him up.
"The play happened so quickly, there wasn't time for anybody to be down field," UH defensive coordinator Tom Williams said. "It was a bad call that really took away our momentum."
It's possible for a referee to receive a one-game suspension for a bad call, but it's unlikely Benson will address the issue in a public forum because technically Bradley may have been right.
"There has to be some time frame in that kind of call," vonAppen said. "You don't wait for the two teams to leave the field before you throw the flag."
UH season statistics
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS / THE LEADERS
Rushing
Car Yards Avg. TD Long Charles Tharp 104 463 4.5 1 58 Avion Weaver 26 98 3.8 0 11 Derek Zoller 26 83 3.2 0 12 Bronson Liana 27 67 2.5 0 12 Fred Lau 7 45 6.4 0 23 Calvin Mims 13 43 3.3 0 8 Robert Grant 7 20 2.9 0 13 Afatia Thompson 4 6 1.5 0 3 Dan Robinson 61 6 0.1 0 15 Josh Skinner 8 -1 -0.1 0 5
Att Comp Yards Int TD Dan Robinson 218 95 1,322 6 8 Josh Skinner 9 1 19 1 0 Bronson Liana 14 3 14 1 0
Rec Yards TD Long Wesley Morris 35 489 4 52 Dwight Carter 21 313 3 69 Eleu Kane 11 209 0 55 Charles Tharp 9 69 0 36 Davey deLaura 7 94 0 39 Derek Zoller 3 31 1 23 Mike Iosua 3 31 0 19 Craig Stutzman 3 54 1 28 Calvin Mims 1 19 0 19 Robert Grant 1 9 0 9 Avion Weaver 1 17 0 17 Jimmy McClain 1 7 0 7 Afatia Thompson 1 5 0 5 Robert Kemfort 1 4 0 4 Nassor Anderson 1 4 0 4
TD XP 2XP SAF FG Pts Wesley Morris 4 0 0 0 0 24 Chad Shrout 0 5 0 0 5-12 20 Dwight Carter 3 0 0 0 0 18 Derek Zoller 1 0 0 0 0 6 K Cobb-Adams 1 0 0 0 0 6 Charles Tharp 1 0 0 0 0 6 Chris Pinkney 0 0 1 0 0 2
No. Yards Avg. Long Chad Shrout 59 2,264 38.4 62
Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Daniel Ho-Ching 3 54 42 0 0 0 Charles Tharp 10 119 22 3 46 20 James Polk 2 17 10 0 0 0 Eleu Kane 5 32 21 9 168 28 Dwight Carter 6 30 14 3 64 23 Wesley Morris 0 0 0 11 263 65 Robert Grant 0 0 0 5 130 44
Una Ast Total Loss Sack Phil Austin 21 9 30 1 1 Matt Paul 28 23 51 1 0 Stephen Gonzales 17 15 32 1 1 Jeff Ulbrich 25 13 38 4 1 Anthony Smith 25 18 43 0 0 Quincy LeJay 29 8 37 0 0 Donnell Williams 24 13 37 0 0 Tony Tuioti 19 14 33 1 0 Kamuela Cobb-Adams 18 12 30 2 1 Mark Mollner 12 11 23 0 1 Ben Bright 15 7 22 1 2 Houdini Jackson 13 8 21 2 2 Joaquin Avila 12 9 21 2 3 Miles Garner 13 6 19 4 0 Jose[h Correia 10 6 16 1 0 Damien Arafiles 8 1 9 1 0 Yaphet Warren 9 2 11 1 0 Chris Garnier 10 3 13 0 0 Jovon Jiles 14 1 15 0 0 Daniel Ho-Ching 9 5 14 0 0
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