Texas head coach Charlie Strong took a critical fifteen yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty late in the Longhorns’ 30-27 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday. However, video shows that the referee may have goaded him into the flag.
Strong was protesting a defensive holding call against his team with Oklahoma State driving down three. Though animated, he kept his distance from the official until the very end, when he appeared to make slight contact. The referee didn’t need a second invitation to throw the flag for a personal foul, as seen in this video.
VIDEO: @ATXANT10's angle of Charlie Strong's late game 15yd personal foul penalty. Appears to make contact w official pic.twitter.com/zaRdtQjXHJ
— Adam Winkler (@WinklerKEYE) September 27, 2015
Calling this a bump is being a bit generous. If anything, the contact looks incidental, and you could even argue the referee did more to instigate it than Strong did. While contact is contact, this will be a tough one for Strong and the Longhorns to swallow. That said, it was just one of sixteen penalties called against Texas, and what really cost them was this botched punt late in the fourth quarter.
Video via Adam Winkler
