Kansas State WR Adrian Hilburn Flagged for Unsportsmanlike Conduct (Video)

We’ve seen a lot of bad calls throughout our lives as sports fans, and this certainly is up there. You don’t even have to be a Kansas State supporter to realize that the Wildcats were hosed at the end of the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

In what turned out to be a highly entertaining bowl game with the teams trading scores, Kansas State scored with 1:24 left to get within two of Syracuse. Carson Coffman hit receiver Adrian Hilburn on a quick hook, and Hilburn broke a tackle turning the pass into a 30-yard touchdown. After scoring the TD, Hilburn did a salute to the crowd and then was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. The penalty pushed Kansas State back to the 18 in their two-point conversion attempt and their pass fell incomplete. Here is the Kansas State Adrian Hilburn penalty video if you haven’t seen it:

That wasn’t anything close to excessive, and it hardly was an example of a player drawing attention to himself. That certainly was a situation where I wish the referee just let it go. It was too good of a game for a key play at the end to be ruined by an official’s poor judgment.