Jim Harbaugh says Big Ten admitted mistake on ‘phantom’ holding call
The Michigan Wolverines pulled off their biggest comeback of the Jim Harbaugh era with their win over Northwestern on Saturday, and they had to overcome one of the worst calls of the season in order to make it happen. How bad was it? Even the Big Ten agrees that the flag could have wrongly cost Michigan the game.
Michigan was trailing 17-0 early before charging all the way back to win 20-17, and they managed to not lose their focus after this holding call when they were trailing 17-13 in the fourth quarter:
Karan Higdon was somehow called for holding on this play. He got tackled. pic.twitter.com/oeP7FkJlw6
— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) September 29, 2018
As you can see, Wolverines quarterback Shea Patterson faked a handoff to running back Karan Higdon, who was tackled by a Northwestern defender. Patterson then scrambled for a 15-yard gain, but Higdon was flagged for holding. The call was inexplicable.
In his weekly interview with “The Jamie and Stoney Show” on 97.1 The Ticket Wednesday, Harbaugh was asked if the Big Ten called him to say, “Sorry we missed it.” He said an official from the conference did, in fact, admit the mistake.
“I’d say it was the worst call in the history of college football — since 1869,” Harbaugh reiterated on Wednesday, via Aaron McMann of MLive.com. “I’d put it right up there with it.”
Again, the Big Ten is lucky Michigan was able to win the game. If not, that would have been quite the controversy.
